The Curse
by Wildflame
Summary: A mage is banished from Planet Vegeta after his involvement in a conspiracy to kill the prince. But since that day nothing has been the same, everything is headed in a downward spiral and the youngest royal is the only one who sees it happening.
1. Execution

**Disclaimer:** I hereby disclaim DBZ... forever. And ever.

**Summary: ** A mage is banished from Planet Vegeta after his involvement in a conspiracy to kill the prince. But since that day nothing has been the same, everything is headed in a downward spiral and the youngest royal is the only one who sees it happening.

* * *

**The Curse**

**Chapter 1**

**Execution  
**

The look on everyone's faces had the feel of an execution, the younger boys heads were lowered in fright and the men's faces were as solemn as they ought to be. They yanked the man in, his hair was matted to his forehead and separated into frizzed tufts on his head. Blood streamed down his face, but his eyes were ablaze, as if they had a blue fire running through them. Finally, he stared up as the king. Vegeta didn't look any less somber than the rest of the men in the room, however, he didn't look somber enough to any of them. He stared blatantly at his brother, his eyes seeming almost dead. "What's the charge?" His voice echoed in the silent room and cut into the people like a knife.

One of the guards who held the bleeding man restrained began to speak, "H-" The interruption became before he could wholly finish the first syllable.

"I disobeyed an order from Frieza, my Lord." He nearly spat at his older brother. "I decided I was tired of seeing the lower class of our race being used as slaves in a particular part of town and showed the pathetic henchmen a thing or two about how to fight. But I understand, disobeying his Lordship is inexcusable. Execute me, please." Sarcasm and hatred rang out in the more emotional ups of his plea. The acidic fervor was especially capitalized every time he referred to Frieza.

Vegeta sat in cold silence for a moment. The saiyans in the room seemed to be daring him to sentence his own brother to death for saving some of their own kind. They knew the king had to do it or there would be dire consequences. Even so, "how could he sentence his own brother to death," they wondered. Vegeta's dead eyes searched the room for a moment and came up empty. His eyes finally returned to his younger brother, who seemed to lack any trace of fear or pain despite his haggard appearance.

"It seems you are already aware of the punishment for such a crime… the punishment for disobeying Frieza is death, you are hereby sentenced to execution." A smirk crawled across his brother's face. There was trace of pain in all that resentment, though. Pain resided from the utter realization that his older brother, whom he once revered, was nothing but a mindless enforcer of Frieza's will.

The guards began to drag him off and there was now a murmur that replaced the silence of the room. A single, strangled cry of hysteria pierced the murmur and left everyone's eyes searching for the cause of the noise. It was a young woman, with short, black hair and brown eyes. The king found her easily in the crowd, his wife. She turned and ran out of the room before many of the others found her though, and left the hole in his chest even larger than before.

* * *

The dungeon was cold but not nearly so uncomfortable as the guards had made it out to be. The execution itself was not the thing troubling Farinata. The fact that his brother had actually sentenced him was not even truly bothering him. Yes, it bothered him in the way that his brother no longer gave one thought to the well being of the saiyan race. The king was neglecting other, more pressing matters though. A gruff voice informed Farinata that he had a visitor and he looked up half expecting to see his brother standing before him. And he half got what he was expecting. If he remembered correctly, the boy had just recently turned six. He was till relatively small for a saiyan boy, but Farinata knew very well that he was quite the protégé, as far as saiyans went. His eyes were piercingly blue, like Farinata's. The only real resemblance he had to his father would have been his hair, which looked identical. "What are you doing here?"

For a moment, the boy didn't say anything. He looked down at his feet and then back up at his uncle, "I wanted to ask you something." He had a very soft voice. His eyes were not unlike Farinata's, but there was an innocent vulnerability to them that resides usually primarily in the eyes of children.

"Why did you and my dad stop talking in the first place?" The boy's eyes finally came up to meet his uncle's and for a long time in stunned Farinata to be asked such a blatant question by such a little boy.

"We didn't, we just started moving in different circles, kid." Suddenly, he was overcome with sympathy for his young nephew. He looked like there were a thousand emotions going through his head, and he was too young to fully understand any of them. "Don't worry about it, any of this… it's not…it doesn't have anything to do with you." His mind flitted to one particular thing and he dismissed the thought, bringing his brother's son into it would help nothing.

"Well, didn't you use to get along? Why did you start fighting?" He was genuinely curious, Farinata wouldn't expect anything less of his own flesh and blood. He had his own suspicions about why everything had spiraled out of control, but he just smiled and shook his head.

"People grow apart sometimes, Vegeta, there's not always a reason…" Vegeta's eyes shifted downwards once again and he sighed. His little face seemed so full of emotion, Farinata wished he could comfort him but behind the bars that would have been pretty awkward for the both of them.

"It was because of Frieza, wasn't it? That big stupid jerk…" Farinata couldn't help but smile, at least Frieza hadn't gotten to all of the saiyans just yet. It wasn't exactly the most profound statement anyone had ever made, but it meant the boy understood what was going on around him. Farinata knew he had a good head on his shoulders, he wished he could have taken him more seriously and known him as an adult. That was one of the few regrets Farinata had about dying.

Vegeta grinded his teeth together for a moment and seemed to wrestle with something in his mind and then glared back up at his uncle, "Why won't anyone talk to me? Dad won't tell me anything, nobody will."

Farinata leaned his head back up against the wall and bit his lip to keep anything that shouldn't spill out, "There's nothing to tell, Vegeta."

The boy stared off into the distance for a long time and the light shone on a watery substance that had built up on the brim of his eyes. Farinata felt strangely emotional and suddenly attached to the life he was about to lose. This was the one thing he did not feel he had finished, he did not want to leave Faye's son behind. He didn't want to leave his brother's son behind, but he knew he had to. He had made his choices. "Okay, well, I'll miss you." Vegeta's voice sounded oddly strangled, his bottom lip began to quiver, and he lost control of the tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry Daddy did this to you…"

Farinata felt as if his heart, which had been frozen for so long, was being melted, he finally reached one hand through the bar and grabbed the prince's shoulder. He turned the boy to face him fully. "Don't apologize for anything your father is doing or does… you are not your father and you never will be."

The boy gave a meek little nod and stared at his uncle for a long moment, "I'm scared." His voice was barely audible above the very little noise in the bottom floor of the dungeon.

"Vegeta, you are the smartest saiyan I have ever met, not to mention the strongest. Don't be scared, and… I'll miss you too. But I'll see you again one day." He smiled comfortingly at the boy, even though the tug on his heart was getting progressively worse.

The prince blinked back a few more tears and looked over to the guard who was apparently motioning that time was up, he looked back at his uncle for the last time and waved. He turned to go, but before he did, Farinata grabbed him one last time and whispered one name that rang in the boy's ears, "Rasputin."

* * *

That night, he dreamt what would be his last dream, and he dreamt of things gone by, the root of it all…

"_I need you to tell me what exactly happened, you are not being very helpful, son." The little boy looked incredibly nervous about telling his account of the events that had led up to this trial. His father was being fairly patient, but Vegeta was fidgety._

"_I think he tried to kill me… we were sparring. And I won… and, he had a knife, but it was ok because I knocked it away and then I got mad at him. And he said he…he said…he…uh…" Farinata knelt beside his nephew and gave him an encouraging smile._

"_No one is going to be angry with you for anything you say, even if it is one big lie." Vegeta got the face of a true little boy, as his timidity turned into whining. _

"_I'm not LYING. It's just hard to be a …tattle-tail." Farinata chuckled a bit under his breath and his older brother simply put his hand to his forehead. King Vegeta now also knelt beside his little boy, and Vegeta looked at him with the expression of a boy who is afraid he might not get what he wants. "I'm not lying." The voice had a whine factor that had formerly been missing. Farinata laughed once again, and the boy glared at him._

"_He was kidding, and you are not being a tattle-tail, son. The boy tried to kill you."_

_Vegeta crossed his arms in frustration and then said "His daddy told him to hurt me… and that he was going to hurt everybody else… and he was sad that he lost to a almost three year old, except he said not even… but I am almost." He looked at his father imploringly._

"_Yes, you are…" The smile on his father's face was extremely loving and Farinata placed his hand on his nephew's shoulder and stood up. "Rasputin, again…"_

"_Nitar, the son, must be executed… he is of age…" King Vegeta nodded in agreement with his brother, but then a thoughtful expression transformed his features._

_Farinata was shaking his head in dismay over the fact that a father would be so cruel as to put his own son's life in danger, but then who could expect such tenacity out of a boy so young. He supposed they could have made it look like a sparring accident, had Nitar won. He shivered at the thought of that. "Is Nitar that much older than Vegeta?"_

_Vegeta sulked and answered, "He's seven."_

_His father did not conceal his surprise well, and despite Farinata already knowing this fact, it shocked him to think once again that a three-year-old had beaten a seven-year-old. It was true that saiyans matured fast, but Vegeta did not seem to be __**maturing**__ any faster than the rest of the children, he just seemed unnaturally __**better**__ than them. Far better than his father or Farinata had been at that age. The fact remained, it was no ordinary feat for a boy as young as Vegeta to even hold a candle to someone as old as Nitar. "Thank you, son. Why don't you go see your mother, she is extremely worried about you." Vegeta's son nodded and made his way towards the exit._

"_Your boy is incredibly talented, it's becoming increasingly obvious that he is far from normal." The king smirked and nodded his head. Farinata smiled at the apparent pride the king took in his son, and he didn't blame him. The prince was positively phenomenal._

_King Vegeta's smirk eventually faded and he looked at his brother in confidence, "It worries his mother sometimes just how good he is. There's good and there's beyond the normal limits of good, I'm not worried, though… we are the royal line, it's only expected for him to be great…but, Farinata…" _

_He turned to look his brother full in the face, "I don't like executing a seven year old, just because he is over six years old…it doesn't seem fair… and it's apparent we have to do something about Rasputin."_

_Farinata shook his head in disgust at the sound of the name, "You don't have enough reason to warrant and execution unfortunately, because I cannot see Nitar testifying against his own father, but… I think an exile would be in order." He took a deep breath and put his hand on his brother's shoulder, "I know it's not easy, but if you don't enforce the law… people will start taking advantage, it's the breaks when it comes to being a ruler. You can't fool around." _

_The king took a seat along edge of the part of the room that revealed a lifted flower bed. It was the royal room, it contained a flowing stream all the way around that went out to flow through the rest of the palace. The room itself was , but a clear blue that almost matched the water and you could see yourself in the reflection of the tiles. The throne sat in the middle of the room, with a red carpet leading up to it. Guards were at any entrance to the room, which there were four of, and the ceiling was pure silver. Farinata thought it was a bit large, considering what little was in it, but it suited royalty most definitely. His father was the one who had come up with the design. While he was still around, it wasn't getting changed, and his older brother was the king and he seemed to like it. "I'm glad I have you around to keep pushing me towards that goal, or I'd be screwed." _

"_Yes you would." The tone was joking, but something in Vegeta's face seemed to agree wholeheartedly with it, and it made Farinata feel suddenly important. His brother had a way of showing people he cared about them. His eyes always seemed to be full of life, even though they were brown, and not as piercing as Farinata's. The brothers' appearances could not have been much different for them being brothers. Vegeta was tall, Farinata was very average height, Farinata had ice blue eyes, Vegeta had brown, Farinata was lean, Vegeta was all muscle, Farinata was far tanner than his brother, and Vegeta's hair stood straight up on end, while Farinata's was just one controllable brown mess that lay on top of his head. Then, there was Vegeta's goatee, which Farinata thought looked incomprehensibly stupid. _

_Farinata found it funny that the king's son seemed to have inherited more of his own features than his father's. He would have to rub that in his face when Vegeta's power came full circle and he was officially the strongest fighter…ever. "I suppose we should get this over with, though… do you mind issuing the court order for two days from now, at one?"_

_The younger brother nodded his head and walked towards the opposite exit the prince had gone through. He knew he would be glad to have Rasputin out of the kingdom, he did have a slight worry that without his execution, he could still cause damage. He was, after all, the most powerful mage on Planet Vegeta._

_There was a lot of murmur in the room today as Nitar stood before the king and his brother. Nitar seemed to know he was going to be killed because his knees were shaking. Farinata caught a glimpse of the young prince, who looked as sad as he had when his father first told him Nitar had to be executed. Farinata supposed the prince was blaming himself for the death. That was very typical of the child, but atypical of a saiyan. Farinata knew his own brother was compassionate, but the child made even King Vegeta seem an angry tyrant at times. "Nitar, you are aware that you are past the age of understanding."_

_Nitar nodded his head but did not look up at the king as he spoke. "Yes, my lord."_

"_And you are also aware that the penalty for taking the life or attempting to take the life of another while not engaged in a battle… is death." Farinata searched the room for Rasputin and was surprised to see that the man was absent for the time being. He had to push back the time for Rasputin's hearing, he figured it was because he had to say goodbye to his son, but apparently that was not the case since he was not present. _

_Nitar simply nodded his head a second time, "Yes, m-my lord."_

_The king hesitated for a moment as the look on the poor boy's face seem to fully set in, Farinata placed his hand on his brother's shoulder and he felt the inhalation of breath. "Was there an operator who told you to attempt this murder, you must tell the truth, and if in the case, there is, that man may be held responsible for the attempted murder and you may avoid execution." The younger brother could hear the hope in the older's voice. He felt a surge of sympathy as he knew there was no chance Nitar would blame his own father, even though it seemed Rasputin had no remorse in killing his own child._

"_No, my Lord… nobody other than me was involved." _

_He felt the sadness coming off of his brother in waves. It took the king a moment before he spoke again. "Very well, then, I sentence you… to death." He raised his hand and around the tips of his fingers there was a surge of energy._

_Farinata actually had to look away himself, he hated seeing people killed, especially someone as young as Nitar. His glance shifted to the king's son, his mother was kneeling and holding a trembling boy against her chest, he was quite obviously crying. Farinata shook his head and made a note to talk to Faye and the boy later._

_The air seemed different in the court after Nitar's execution. Everyone was actually eager for the banishment of Rasputin, no normal saiyan was happy with the thought of a boy of only seven being executed. They all knew the king had a duty to uphold the law, but that didn't make it easy to endure. There was a happiness now, Farinata knew everyone hated Rasputin, or the higher end of the population did anyway, and they would all be glad to see him go. An execution would be getting more of a happy reception, but that was not something that could be done, and waiting until an execution was in order could do more harm than good._

_The guards held Rasputin, a few more security precautions were taken when dealing with a mage as powerful as Rasputin. His cuffs were magic proof and allowed no circulation of power through them, he also wore shackles which was not a normal custom. Rasputin looked livid as he stared up at the king. His eyes were as bloodshot as ever, they had always had an evil look in them, veins visible throughout them. His eyes themselves were a mixture of their former brown and the grayish black inflicted by the dark magic he concocted. His hair was stood up on his head and falling over at the top, all going in one forward direction and the far ends of his head uncovered by any hair at all, leaving a visible sign for black magic. _

_As soon as the room was silenced, Rasputin spoke, and it chilled the air. "You executed a seven year old, I hope you're proud of yourself, KING." He smirked and everyone seemed to take a step back, as his voice sounded like a snake would if one could talk. _

"_I upheld the law, Rasputin. I believe you are the one who truly killed your son, anyway." Rasputin smiled unpleasantly and looked around the room eerily. Farinata followed his gaze, and it was then he realized the rest of the king's family was not present this time. He found himself unnaturally happy for this._

_Rasputin's evil smile turned into a full on grin after a moment of scanning the room, "Very well, my Lord, what is my punishment?"_

_The king skipped the formalities this time, everyone in the room knew what the charges were and everyone knew what the charges should have been, "Exile, Rasputin."_

_Rasputin looked positively taken aback and Farinata smirked at this. He was just thrilled to see the smug look disappear from that ugly face. "You cannot EXILE me."_

"_I can, and I will." Vegeta's curt response was a lot nicer than the one Farinata would liked to have given him._

_Rasputin grinded his teeth together, "I…"_

"_Your banishment starts NOW."_

"_I'll make you pay, Vegeta… you and your entire family WILL PAY FOR THIS." _

The rest of the dream flashed without audio, it bursts of images. The fight Farinata and the king had eventually had that caused the distance and them to grow. Faye's accident that prevented her from ever walking again. Then, Frieza. The weeks following the execution involved Frieza's take over of the entire planet. Farinata shivered in his sleep.

* * *

"So you heard about the new kid?" Calis seemed particularly overzealous on this day. The prince was not at all pleased to see him so perky on a day when he felt like running and hiding under a nearby rock.

Vegeta smiled fakely at his friend, and despite Calis and him both knew it was fake, Calis pretending to not be deterred by it. "If I say yes, will you not tell me about him?"

"No, because it's a girl."

"Damn."

Calis grinned from ear to ear and quickly looked around to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. A precaution the prince found particularly unnecessary considering he was talking about a new kid that everyone would know about before the day was over anyway, "Apparently, she's pretty strong… and she's… from Sector 7. You know the school that had that kid die last semester. Apparently her mother died and her father takes care of her so she's kind of… boyish."

Vegeta was trying to pretend to be interested, he hated being so completely rude to everyone around him, but he honestly did not care. "Oh no, not… _boyish._" The sarcasm dripped like acid from his voice. Calis rolled his eyes.

"I'm just wondering if she's any good looking."

"Me too, Calis, that's exactly what I was wondering." Calis finally sighed and punched his friend playfully in the shoulder. This prompted a real smile from the prince, though his smiles seemed to get rarer and rarer with each passing day. He hated that he seemed so unhappy all the time, but for one, he was unhappy all the time, and if he pretending to be happy, if he had any ability as far as faking emotions went, people would think he was delusional with all the horrors that had been occurring in and around his family lately.

Calis noticed the thoughtful look on the prince's face and found himself wondering once again what he was thinking about. It always seemed the Vegeta was raveled in consistent mystery, "Right, because you have totally always been into girls, right?"

Vegeta's friend had as much a right to be into girls as anyone, he had short, messy light brown hair and gray eyes. He was about Vegeta's height. Calis seemed to think girls were more attracted to Vegeta usually, but the prince couldn't see why. He didn't see much difference at all in their appearances, it seemed to him that it ought to be fairly balanced. Calis had a lot more muscle than Vegeta, who was leaner, Vegeta thought girls were more interested in big muscles. Then again, he wasn't too up to date on what girls were interested in. "Right."

The day passed in what seemed like a complete blur for Vegeta, so much, that when the realization hit him at the end of the day that they were being assigned their squadrons for going out on real missions he honestly got excited. "I completely forgot!"

Calis grinned, "I know, I hope I get in yours, because yours is obviously going to do the best because you'll be in there." Vegeta rolled his eyes, knowing most people thought this to be true; but once again, he was a little lost on why it was so. The things he thought of and did seemed so common sense to him.

Everyone sat in silence while the named were called and the assignments were made, Vegeta was beginning to feel that they had unenrolled him in the academy for this one day and he was never going to get an assignment. "Vegeta Ouji." Vegeta's head immediately perked up as he jumped down and bounded towards the instructor. "Calis Onasi." Calis was far more excited than he should have been.

Vegeta elbowed him in the ribs, "Cut it out, or people are going to think you're gay."

Calis nodded in understanding, looking imploringly at the instructor for the final name of their three man group. "Krystal Hiyo." Vegeta's friend made a groan loud enough for the people back in Sector 7 to actually hear. Vegeta nailed him across the head, his eyes searching for the girl, hoping she hadn't heard, but she was already glaring at him.

Krystal walked towards them; she was a smaller girl. Her jet black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she had long bangs that covered up one of her eyes. Her eyes were a sparkling green color. Vegeta opened his mouth to speak, but from the look on her face nothing he said was going to be taken with a grain of salt. "I don't want to be with either of you anymore than you want to be with me." Her eyes were full of anger and she glared from one to the other.

Calis looked at Vegeta for an idea of what to do, but the prince was just as stuck as he was. He skimmed through his vocabulary for anything that could lighten the situation, and he couldn't find a single thing, so, "Fine… then just don't get in our way and maybe we'll have a good team after all," he insulted her.

Vegeta shifted by her silently, not happy about being so rude, but figuring it was the best way to deal with the situation at hand. Krystal's face went from angry to shocked, her green eyes widened and her eyebrows raised, then she narrowed her eyes once more and looked at Calis, then turned. "Oh, this is going to suck." Calis shook his head and hung his head and he followed them.

* * *

"Heh, I feel sorry for anyone who gets settled being the prince's sensei, what can you teach him? I mean honestly." He adjusted the headset on his head and flipped a few switches, pressed a few keys and scanned the words and numbers that screened across. He shifted his mouthpiece just slightly so he could accurately hear the results of the latest fights, and what the new group of saiyans was going to have to offer. He had already heard about the prince. Everyone had.

His partner smirked and watched the data scroll across the screen. "No kiddin'…ya know, it's just a matter of time 'fore Frieza really starts to look at the kid. He ain't normal." His blue scaled friend shook his head in what seemed like a mixture of fear and wonder.

"I don't know how it's slid past for this long." The green alien leaned back in his chair and experienced the same emotions going across his friend's face. "Guess it's 'cuz Frieza thinks he's got the king so under control why even worry about his son? What he doesn't know is that he's… he ain't no normal saiyan, that's for sure."

The blue one nodded solemnly. His mind wrapped around the thought that the prince might possibly have the power to destroy their leader if his potential was truly unleashed. "All these petty monkeys, they're too stupid to let the kid know he's got a gift."

"I think he knows."

"He might know he's somethin' special, but he don't know how special. Have you seen his readings in comparison with the rest of the kids?" He chuckled in remembrance of the initial reaction to his power level after the tests. They hadn't been released to the saiyans without editing, but the prince's had not even been put on the scale. It was so astronomically impossible that there would be a child with so much power.

"Kuh, have you seen it in comparison with the adults, he could probably take his father. If we took the nullifiers off the saiyans scouters, they'd all run away from him screamin'.

The response to this was an immediate shake of the head, "Nah, I think they'd be thrilled to know they had a chance of getting rid of Frieza."

"Yeah, yeah… so who's his squad members?"

The opposite alien took his finger and scrolled down to the prince's name on the list and pressed it. Two other names came up beside it now. "Looks like… Krystal Hiyo and… the Onasi kid."

His partner threw back his head and barked a smug laugh. "A girl, they put their protégé with a girl? Oh, they really are just a bunch of monkeys." This prompted the other alien to check the girl's profile with a smirk on his face as well. A picture of the girl came up and a long list of stats and a track record. "Oh, but she is cute."

He continued to scroll, her background information was nothing out of the ordinary. Mother had died in childbirth, not at all atypical for the saiyan race, sometimes the women just weren't strong enough to handle the newborn's raw powers. It was both a blessing and a curse for the race, on one hand, the saiyan race's male to female ratio was incredibly one sided. On the other hand, the only saiyan girls who were alive were usually very strong, or single. However, the younger unmarried girls were usually not so strong. Her father was a second-class warrior, the only reason she was in a school as good as the prince was due to the fact that her mother had formerly been a noble. The father didn't seem overly impressive, though. Just a typical middle class warrior, not too weak, not too strong. Pretty much what they expected in saiyans. He stopped cold in his scrolling when he saw this one's power level, though. "Whoa, I think we may have spoken too soon about this one."

His partner strained his neck to look at the blue alien's individual screen, her power level was not at all a laughing matter. Granted, it was within normal kid range, but it was at the very top of the list. "My God, I guess they know a little more than we give them credit for."

The other scrolled down a little further for some history and recent information. "She's from Sector 7, that kind of explains it. Apparently, she was present when the boy was killed down there, but she wasn't directly involved. I think her and the boy were not on good terms, though."

"Who knows, probably was involved then."

* * *

"Vegeta, didn't you get your assignments today?" The prince stopped walking, his brown boots making a slight squeak again the floor as he did. His eyebrow twitched, it was always very awkward when his father chose to ask him about his school life. It was always awkward when his father chose to ask him about anything.

"Uh, yeah."

"Ah…" Vegeta was a little perturbed, even he would have known where to go from there. He gritted his teeth at his father's inability to coerce with anyone anymore. "…it seems early, what age are they doing it now… six, seven?"

"Eight, Dad, I'm eight." Sweet.

"…right. So who--…?"

Vegeta began counting the tiles on the white marble floor, as he often did when him and his father had their attempt at conversations. He managed to interrupt before his father asked him the wrong question or something. "Some girl and Calis."

The king watched his son stand before him and refuse to look at him. Somewhere inside of him, it hurt. He wanted to reach out to his son, now, but he didn't know how to. He didn't know how to reach out to anyone anymore. "The Onasi boy, he's your friend, right?" The prince nodded. "That's good."

Vegeta looked to the side and took a breath, "I'm gonna go to the training room now." He had reverted to the type of speech where he mumbled so badly people could hardly understand him. It was quiet and ridiculously fast. His father had gotten used to it though, because usually that was the only voice his child used with him anymore.

"Alright, don't overdo it."

Vegeta nodded and spun on his heels, with his head down, he headed in the direction of the training room. It would be good to get there and let off some steam. Today had started out bad and ended even worse, of all people who had to get saddled with some mean new girl, why did it have to be him? "You're home early, you didn't train with Calis today?"

The prince snapped his head up to look at his mother, she was in her wheel chair, with her hair still cropped short. "I did, actually… am I early?" He looked around for a way to tell the time and was dismayed to find that there was nothing available. He reached for his scouter.

His mother replied before he could get his hand to it, though, "Yeah… almost thirty minutes." Vegeta continued reaching for his scouter anyway and clicked it once and read the time from it. She was right, he was early. That was odd; he had fought with Calis after school today. They always sparred and he always won.

"I don't know, Mom. Calis did seem a little off his game today." Her eyes suddenly welled with worry about something and he couldn't help but wonder what that might be. He had noticed that she was always worrying when he talked about his training exercises and sparring matches lately. If she thought he was falling behind, she was wrong. He was better than most everyone in his class by a long shot. "I won, guess I won faster than usual. We got assignments for missions today too, you know." She smiled and seemed genuinely interested, although some interest seemed faked to cover up the worry that was getting increasingly obvious.

"And?"

He smiled after a moment, "Calis is on mine, but so is some new girl. She was kind of a jerk too. I guess maybe she felt out of place because she's new and Calis groaned really loudly when he realized she was our other squad member. It was really embarrassing."

Faye laughed for a moment before moving her chair over to him. "She's a woman, that's all it is." Vegeta rolled his eyes and stared longingly towards the training rom. His conversations with his mom were different than the ones with his dad, he didn't want to get out of the conversations, he just wanted to get in to training. "How is it that you can like fighting so much, you just got out of school, isn't sparring your last period? And then you spar with Calis?"

"Mom, Calis doesn't count, he sucks. And sparring class is usually not much of a challenge either, actually, it never is. During training, I can adjust it to my level of skill… for the most part, I wish you guys would get a higher level of gravity in there, or some different programs, and besides, aren't saiyans **supposed** to love fighting?"

"I believe you are a little extraordinary."

"You're just worrying too much." He headed towards the training room.

'_You just don't know how extraordinary you are.'_

_

* * *

  
_

_Farinata ran up to Vegeta breathing fairly hard. "How was the childbirth? Is everything alright? Is Faye…?"_

_The king held up his hand and smiled at him, "She's fine, and so is the baby." Farinata breathed a deep sigh of relief. He looked up halfheartedly, and then down sheepishly. "It's alright you missed it, it was not your fault." Farinata shrugged his shoulders slightly, and rocked back on his heels._

_There was something odd about Vegeta's smile, though. It was not the warm typical smile Farinata usually received from his brother. There was a kind of tension running through it, as if he wanted to show Farinata something but couldn't say anything about it. Farinata raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Is there something…"_

"_Come with me." His older brother hooked Farinata's wrist and dragged him into a small room. The baby wasn't crying, not completely out of the ordinary. Farinata assumed this was the baby's room anyway. Vegeta brought his brother over a small bed where the little child was laying. It had big blue eyes, that looked similar to Farinata's. It was then that Farinata stopped cold. He felt something. There was something pressing down on him, now and he looked around the room for the cause. His brother put his hands on his shoulders and directed his eyes back towards the baby. The power, the feeling was resonating from the child. "Look, he's not blind."_

_The comment seemed to not have any real sense to it. Then the baby looked Farinata directly in the eyes. It was then he saw it. There was a dim glow in the kid's right eye. It was a symbol. A glowing symbol, it formed an arrow, with two tiny slashes in each side and a dot directly in the center. "Is that a symbol for something, do you know? His presence is… compelling. I feel like I can feet him… in the air. His power is almost tangible." The king nodded his head, looking at Farinata somewhat warily._

"_What does it mean, brother? Is he… is he normal?"_

_Farinata shook his head immediately in response to Vegeta's last question. He reached down to touch the child, to see if he could figure something out that way. The baby reached up and wrapped its small hand around his finger. Farinata smiled slightly, "I don't know…. But, no… he is far from normal. It's name?"_

"_Vegeta." Farinata smirked and his brother and shook his head. _

"_So conceited." _

_Vegeta just shrugged his shoulders and continued to stare at his child. His worry for it was very profound. "I just hope… it doesn't hurt him." Farinata shook his head immediately again, if this was going to hurt anybody it was certainly not going to be this kid._

"_Have you told Faye?"_

_The king looked down for a moment and then shook his head, "I don't want her to worry. You know how she is… she'd freak out." Farinata smiled and nodded. Vegeta had actually made the correct choice involving Faye, this was probably a first._

_Suddenly, the child's eyebrows furrowed and it begin the breathing a baby does before it begins to cry, but as the noises progressed the symbol started glowing. Vegeta stared down at it, trembling. Farinata held him back and watched. The child let out a loud, but single cry and the symbol reached its peak and dimmed into nothing. Farinata had a distinct feeling that it was still there, though. He felt as he looked closer that part of him could still make it out. It was not going away. "There, the visible problem is gone." He smiled at Vegeta._

_Vegeta looked his child up and down for a moment, "I don't think it's gone… I can…" Farinata touched his brother's shoulder gently._

"_It isn't gone. But at least no one knows it's there but us." Vegeta nodded warily._

_

* * *

  
_

Vegeta's feet hit the ground solidly. He glanced up just in time to leap out of the way of an incoming blast. He avoided it with relatively ease, but each time his feet hit the ground the entire training center shook. He started to take heavier breaths and he grinned, jumping up to avoid another.

Suddenly, his head felt like it was burning again. He was used to this, it had been happening all too frequently lately as he fought harder and harder. Frankly, it was what he strived for. It was painful, but it meant he was actually exerting effort and that only happened when he was training alone. His vision began to blur as he deflected another of the blasts.

After another few moments of successful dodges, counters and deflections, a hard blast slammed into his back and he hit the ground hard. He sucked in a painful breath, but leaped up before the opposite blast could hit him. He backflipped and pointed three fingers at the creator of the blasts. He gritted his teeth as the air around his hand shimmered and suddenly light appeared. It intensified and then launched itself into the machine and left it a smoking pile of rubble. Vegeta took a knee, then glanced up as the floor under the ruined machine opened and another, different machine appeared. He caught his breath and then stood to face whatever came next. What appeared was a shadow version of himself. He gawked for a moment, then smirked and clenched his fists. "I guess Mom took me up on the new equipment idea."

The hologram flew towards the prince and as he prepared to block its blow disappeared and reappeared, slamming a foot made of something far harder than flesh and bone into the back of his neck. Vegeta flew across the room and then skidded along the floor for a few moments. "Not bad." The thing flung itself at him again, but not being a complete idiot he jumped over it and did a roundhouse kick to knock it back a few feet. He landed in time to see it form an orb of energy in its hand and throw it in his general direction. He sidestepped, immediately very glad he had as the wall behind him became engulfed in an explosion of energy that could have incinerated his own body. "Ok, so it wasn't Mom."

He grinded his teeth together and then launched himself at the creature, it stepped away and attempted to elbow him, but he turned, caught the elbow and threw the shadow towards the wall it had just tried to destroy. It stopped short of the wall and charged at him another time. He ducked under it this time, but it leapt into the air and came down towards him, looking to jam a foot into his back. He leapt away and shot a few rapid-fire energy blasts at it, and had those all deflected back at him. Vegeta decided to just dodge and moved with incredibly speed to the front of the thing, slightly crouched, and slammed his fist into what seemed to be its abdomen. It seemed momentarily stunned and then grabbed him by the skin of his throat and held suspended him in the air. Vegeta kicked upwards and it was forced to let go due to what would have been a collision with its face.

Vegeta's mind was burning intensely now, so badly that he almost could not see. The vision in his right eye was positively horrid. He wasn't an expert on anatomy but he couldn't help but wonder why it was just his right eye. The hologram jumped to the side and landed a swift kick in to the prince's arm. Vegeta grunted and grabbed the arm, unfortunately, only having a moment to note the pain there before the pressure moved into his ribcage. He opened his eyes and noticed the creature with its knee in his stomach. He thought he opened his mouth to say something, but quickly realized it was to release the buildup of blood in his mouth. The red liquid poured onto the floor and he found himself struggling for breath.

He was furious with himself. He didn't know how long it had been since he had been losing a fight. The burning just kept getting worse. Was it his anger? He could not figure out what it was. He refused to blame the burning for his inability to fight on par with his shadow self. Vegeta gripped his head, an explosion seemed to erupt inside of him. His eyes opened wide as he stared at the hologram. He felt his own power surging through the air around him. The burning stopped and he could see out of his right eye, again. He couldn't just see. He could _see_. He could see everything. He realized he needed to release his power, or it was going to destroy him. The prince stared at the hologram, knowing he had to have a focus point or it would kill everyone in the vicinity. Then he let go. He heard himself scream, and not a scream he had heard from anyone else, or himself. The light was blinding for a moment and the hologram was completely engulfed.

After the power had released, Vegeta felt himself trembling. He could still feel the power, _his_ power, surging through his veins. He realized the burning had been the inability to release it for eight years. His eyes were wide and he felt like something was still weird about his right eye but he had no idea what. He couldn't stop the tremor throughout his body. His body was attempting to return to normal, but Vegeta had come to the realization that he was not normal and it was scaring the hell out of him. The training room had been destroyed, easily, as well as some of the surrounding facility. He heard footsteps approach, and he turned his head, shaking terribly to face the footsteps. It was his father. He looked sorry, scared, worried and sad all at the same time. "What… am I?"

His father didn't say anything for a long time. Vegeta thought about sprinting over there and throttling him for the silence. Just when his patience was at its end, his father began shaking his head. "I'm sorry, son. I don't know."

Vegeta's eyes widened warily. His voice cracked after a moment, "You don't know?" He hit his knees in disbelief. His own father didn't know what he was. His eyes lit up again after a moment of disturbing thoughts, "Does… does Mom?" The king shook his head at his son and the child lowered his head once again in shame. "I don't understand, you're my parents… how can you…"

His father took three long steps toward his son and then was at his side, he knelt down next to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Vegeta looked at his father, terrified. Tears started to well in his blue eyes and their brilliance became even more pronounced. "It's ok. Why are you so upset? It's just power…" The king tried to understand his son's problem.

The prince shook his head fervently. He started to sob uncontrollably. He cursed himself mentally for breaking down like this in front of his father, but he hated this. His mission in life had always been to deny that he was any different from anyone else, and this was painful unavoidable truth. He collapsed completely to the floor, his shoulders shaking as tears wet his cheeks and fell to the floor. "What is wrong with me?" He took a ragged breath, "What am I?"

The king's eyes widened in a little bit of understanding. He lifted his son's head from the floor and allowed the boy to bury his wet face in his father's armor. "_Nothing_ is wrong with you. Why do you think something is wrong with you? You have a gift. You are a saiyan and you are my son." The prince trembled uneasily and then looked up at his father.


	2. Assignment

Disclaimer: I do own Dragon Ball Z and do not claim too, therefore do not sue me.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Assignment  
**

Calis was walking with his chest protruding outwards in a way Vegeta did not think was at all flattering for him. "Now that we have an official mission, we're real men. We can start picking up women."

"We have a woman in our squad." Calis looked at Vegeta like the biggest buzz kill in the history of the universe. The prince couldn't deny he was pretty excited as well. Now that he was past the drama of two days ago, he felt like he could move on with the fact that he was not some monster who was going to destroy everyone. He did feel bad for keeping it from his mother, though.

Calis held up on finger, "She does not count as a woman. She… I don't even know what she is… a curse!" Vegeta's eyed shot opened and then twitched slightly. Calis's shoulders drooped immediately ,"She's right behind me?" Vegeta smiled and gave a reassuring thumbs up.

"You have your nerve, don't you?" She flicked her bangs out of her face for a short moment, but it was probably just for show because within the second they were right back where they started. "Not that I'd want to be considered a woman by scum like you."

Calis gritted his teeth and whirled to face her, Vegeta was impressed to see he had worked up the nerve to actually confront her. Even though, it was usually Calis being the jerk to start with, but somehow Calis's comments just never seemed very effective, hers did. "You…you…you … are not very nice."

"Seriously?" Vegeta's voice was barely audible but it was loud enough for Calis to understand that his comment was ridiculously stupid sounding.

"Vegeta, you just killed my moment."

"…no, no you did that all by yourself, buddy."

Krystal couldn't help it, she smiled and shook her head. Unable to come back with some cruel retort that made the boy want to run and jump off a cliff. She was unsure for her sudden inability to do this, she had never had a problem before with making stupid people look even more stupid. Krystal had a sinking feeling the reason was not the stupid person here. "You really did."

She grinded her teeth after a moment and crossed her arms. "Unfortunately, I have to work with both of you." She tried to emphasis both of you, to herself, anyway. They looked at her curiously. The girl wondered that if she had moved too fast if they would have jumped back and gotten ready to fight. She would never be so stupid, even she could feel his presence. All her demeaning comments to her father about going to the same school as the pampered prince were seeming very dumb. This boy had a presence that was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Vegeta clenched his fists and looked her in the eyes, "We have to work together, sorry but you are going to have to stop using such a condescending tone." Krystal's eye twitched as she took in what he said.

Calis pressed his bangs up on his head with his right hand, even he seemed to be wondering what was going to become of their squad. His eyes shifted to the prince, who seemed to be desiring to take control, it was unlike him, yet was what Calis expected of him. "We need a captain."

The girl in the group nodded her head in agreement, it appeared she might consider what Vegeta had said. "I agree." Her eyes turned towards the prince. "You are the prince, it's your job to run these kind of things, right? Guess you should get your practice in."

The prince narrowed his eyes and he stared at her intensely, "My name is Vegeta, and I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to this as some kind of an experience for me to learn how to be a better ruler. I think you know who is in charge of this planet and if things keep going as they are, I'm not going to have anything to do with it." Her heart thudded to a stop at the sound of his words. The truth of them rung in her ears and she suddenly saw how ridiculous she was being. Her intent was to rid this world of their current ruler, so why downsize the one who could change the course of the saiyan race?

She roughly nodded her head, and closed her eyes for a moment. They opened again and had a different look about them, "You're right, Vegeta. But I do think with that little speech, you've shown who should, indeed, lead this group."

Vegeta looked at Calis for disagreement or affirmation and the other saiyan nodded his head in definite agreement. Part of Vegeta wanted to hide under a rock and tell them to do it themselves, but another side of him informed him he could not do that. "Fine then."

Krystal ran her left hand up and down her right arm, then tried to put on a happy face and be civil with them, "So what was the mission assignment, anyway? Sorry I wasn't there to get it with you two, my class ran late." Calis raised one eyebrow at her and examined her closely, obviously trying to see any habits for when she lied in the future.

The prince smirked, knowing exactly what Calis was doing because his first instinct was to do the same, but in a much more subtle way, "Of course it did. Our assignment is Dantoucant. We're supposed to disable some generators that were placed there by the heads of the planet." He took a deep breath, "Dantoucant is inhabited by two different races. One, the Kioyans are the people who have placed the generators on the surface of the planet. The other, the Ukoyians are the race that pretty much _lost_, they put a request for the generators to be disabled. That way, they can retake the planet." Krystal nodded her head. She tried to remember any lessons she might have taken on this planet, but could remember none. Then again, world history had never been her greatest subject.

"Sounds easy enough."

Calis had a rather confused look on his face for a minute, he appeared to be processing the information he was just giving. In other words, editing out the information that he did not need to destroy. "So are we going to have to kill the Kioyans? Or just disable the generators?"

"I'm not seeing us not running into opposition. Unless they're the type of people who enjoy sitting back and being usurped." Vegeta smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

Krystal shook her head, "There aren't many of those out there." She looked up into the sky, deciding against making her next comment so moved on to the one after it, "We should go check the database to see the power levels we'll be facing."

The prince nodded his head in agreement and Calis found it unnecessary to do the same, because he was confident neither of them would care one bit if he decided it was the worst idea in the history of ideas.

* * *

The database had the basic information they were looking for, but little more. Vegeta scrolled through the data presented to him and found that it should be a very easy mission. He was convinced Calis could have done the mission singlehandedly. "This shouldn't be too difficult."

Krystal agreed and tried to find any useful information elsewhere, and came up empty. "Right, so tomorrow?"

Vegeta nodded and then glanced in his friend's direction, Calis nodded and then stood from his chair. He didn't seem to have been doing too much research, Calis noticed Vegeta looking at his screen and then shifted in front of it, grinning meekly. "There was no point in all of us looking for the same information."

"Fair enough."

Calis smiled and held up his hand to show his was about to take his leave, "Well, Vegeta, I'm meeting with my father and I think we're going to pick out some real armor now that… you know… we're official and everything. So you can contact me later if you still wanna spar." Vegeta thought for a moment and then nodded his head, trying to decide if he thought contacting Calis would be worth the effort or not. Suddenly developing a new fear that he might kill his friend.

"I'll see how everything goes, good luck with shopping." He stood up as well, then turned warily in the girl's direction. She was watching him intently, "Uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow…"

"You might want to establish a meeting place." Some of the condescension had returned to her tone, but Vegeta decided to disregard it this time, because she did have a point. He crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at the other male for any possible ideas.

Calis shook his head to show he didn't have any ideas either, Vegeta had assumed as much. Krystal seemed to be thinking on the matter as well, "I'm new around here, I don't have many ideas… didn't you guys _grow up_ in this sector?"

"Hey, we're trying to find somewhere you'll be able to find, witch." Krystal and Calis exchanged less than intimidating glares.

Vegeta's right eye twitched as he stared in the girl's direction, "You're the new one here, why don't you stop being so rude and let me figure this out." Krystal rolled her eyes but didn't look at him. "We'll meet outside the building to get the pods," he sighed and turned towards Krystal, "do you know where that is?"

She looked down awkwardly and Vegeta sighed audibly, "Do you know where the palace is?"

"Well, obviously."

"Meet me outside there, I'll take you."

Krystal blinked and nodded her head, her heart thudded in her chest for a moment and it seemed to be audible. She glanced from Calis to Vegeta to see if either of them could hear it. Her mind attempted to figure out why her heart became so accelerated all of a sudden. It came up empty. "Fine." She felt like if she didn't consciously try to steady her voice it would crack, or be too shaky too understand.

As she watched them walk away, she put her right hand to her chest, wondering why in the world her emotions were behaving so sporadically.

* * *

King Vegeta leaned silently near the window of the training room, watching his son bounce around to dodge things almost faster than his own eyes could follow. He felt oddly sad that he'd told his son about his birth, it for some reason had seemed like the one thing that was going to bring them together. It hadn't gone how he had planned, though. For a moment, he had felt close to his son again, but then after it was over the emptiness was still between them. The king cringed as a ball of energy slammed into his son's shoulder and sent him toppling to the floor. He was up and out of the way before the next couple were on him, however. The thought had occurred to him to go inside and tell Vegeta he didn't want the distance between them anymore, but the look he would have gotten from his son for his outburst probably would not have been worth it.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as his son deflected a blast and unnecessarily destroyed one of the turrets. A painful memory occurred to him like a slap in the face. His son trained very similar to his brother. He sighed and remembered how everyone had always joked that Farinata and Faye must have had an affair because the prince turned out so similar to Farinata. "Careful, if he ever sees you, that'll embarrass him." The voice sliced his silent reverie like a knife and he turned in the direction of his wife.

"He can't see through the glass, Faye." Her eyes glowed for a few moments as she stared at him. It was the type of glare that was so intense it made people want to look away from it, no matter how kind it was intended to be.

She paused a moment before choosing her words and responding, "Too bad, maybe if he saw how much you cared he wouldn't feel so out of place in your presence."

The king turned his gaze back to his son, who seemed to have gained the upper hand over the entire chamber as two more of the turrets were smoking on the floor and another was firing weak blasts at slow and irregular intervals. "Why does he have to destroy the equipment?"

Her eyes hardened at the mention of training equipment, but the king didn't see this because he was watching his son now. "Vegeta, were you the one who installed that program in the machine… that could have killed him."

King Vegeta stiffened after a moment, the matter he had been trying to avoid was painfully resurfaced in his presence, "Faye, it wasn't going to kill him… but no… it wasn't me." He heard her sharp inhalation of breath and couldn't bring himself to turn and look her in the eyes.

This time when she spoke her voice was trembling, "Then… if you didn't… who did it?" There was a distinct amount of hope in her voice, it was obvious she was more upset by the fact that it wasn't him, and was fervently wishing he knew who had done it .

The king did not want to respond to this question, he knew if he didn't speak it would give the answer away all on its own, so he had to say something. He grinded his teeth together and watched his child deflect a few more shots, letting a couple more seconds tick away before he opened his mouth to sleep, "No, I don't know, Faye… but…"

He could almost visibly hear the shock as her body fell completely limp in the horror of what he had just told her. Vegeta searched frantically for something to tell her that may make her feel a little better about the safety of their son. There was nothing to say. Vegeta himself had been worried about someone watching the prince train, and if that was the case, they knew about his power, and if that was the case, Frieza would soon know just how powerful their son was. "That means…"

Her breath was coming in short, strangled bursts. "Faye, stop this. He's going to be ok. There is no sense borrowing trouble when we don't know, anything could have happened that doesn't mean it's going to get back to Frieza." His words were offering no consolation for her, he could see that by her wild eyed look she had as she stared at the floor.

Her tears started flowing freely after a few moments, and her words became to muffled to hear as her head was bent down and she was talking too fast, "My son, my only son…" She was sobbing intensely now.

The king just stared at his wife, unable to reach out to her. He just stood there in complete silence and shot down any idea he came up with to comfort her. Finally he took the few steps across the room and placed his hand on her shoulder. She did not react to it. "Faye, you have to stop doing this to yourself."

"Is it our fault? Why, why is he like this?" Vegeta shook his head. He struggled with the words in his head to put them into sentence form, but he failed. He grinded his teeth together at his own failure to communicate and that everyone seemed to think his son had a problem just because he was far stronger than anyone on the planet.

His anger finally took hold, "Like what? Strong? There is nothing wrong with our son."

Faye's eyes shot up, tears glistening in both of them but they made way for a more pressing emotion, anger that was encompassed by the sudden glare, her already hoarse voice broke as words spilled out, "I KNOW THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM. I just would rather him be a weak fighter, than be killed or, worse, taken by that MONSTER."

Vegeta understood this and said no more, hoping her anger would subside. His voice was barely audible the next time he spoke, "His first real assignment is tomorrow."

The queen's voice was still shaky, but no longer angry, "I know, he's excited."

"I just hope it goes well, do you happen to know what planet he got assigned to?"

Faye stopped and thought for a moment, seeming surprised that she didn't know. It was rare for her not to know about the prince's life, common for Vegeta, but rare for her. "No, I don't. -I'll ask him later."

* * *

Vegeta's heart was pounding as he leaned against the outer gates of the palace, waiting on the female member of his team to show up. Even as a saiyan, he had never truly been in a situation where his life had been in mortal danger. He'd been put through some pretty rigorous training programs, and run into some animals when him and Calis would go exploring in the uncivilized areas around, but never sentient beings he was fighting to kill. Part of it, admittedly, scared him, but part of it was accelerating the blood in his veins, as well as his heart rate. "You seem rather wound up." Vegeta jerked his head to see one of the guards on duty smiling at him.

He stared up at the sky for a long moment and smiled, he just made an "mhm" sound for fear of scaring the man.

"First assignment?"

The prince nodded his head, as he flexed his fingers a few times and bounced on his toes to keep himself from running up any walls. "Nervous?"

Vegeta just shrugged his shoulders, hinting towards a little bit of a nod, but kept his eyes forward, searching for any movement that meant Krystal was nearby. He was beginning to think she may have gotten lost, which was going to upset him profoundly.

Just before he began to go search for her, he saw the movement he had been waiting for. She came up the walkway and he met her halfway so she didn't have to walk the full length of the path up to the palace. "Thought you might have gotten lost."

The girl raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head, "I'm not stupid." Vegeta shrugged his shoulders a second time to show that he wasn't accusing, but agreeing that if she had been lost she was indeed an idiot.

She watched him and every inch of him seemed to be alive, half of him nervous and half of him excited, as he led her towards their destination. Krystal was also fairly excited for this expedition, living in Sector 7 had shown her a little bit of what fighting other saiyans or sentient life forms was like, but nothing like a mission. Her eyes stayed on him for a long time, feeling some kind of tug at her heart that seemed distressed that he wasn't saying anything. "Are you excited?" He broke the silence and the tug on her heart vanished.

"I guess so." She didn't want to appear too excited, hence him thinking her a basket-case. He looked at her for only a moment before facing forward towards his goal once again. When it became painfully obvious that the prince was not going to break the silence again and the weird tug, she supposed it was from feeling awkward, returned, she broke the silence of her own accord, "Do you see him a lot, Frieza?"

This topic seemed to dampen the prince's mood a little bit, and she found herself regretting the fact that she had asked the question. "No, Dad is the one who deals with him and he usually has to go to Frieza for audiences and stuff like that. I think Frieza only shows up when something really important happens." Every time he spoke the name Frieza there was a large degree of contempt involved.

"Right. Do you ever put your scouter on?" Vegeta blinked, seeming a little bit befuddled at the rapid pace at which she was changing topics, and the fact that she was actually being so sociable with him. He supposed she didn't want to walk in silence, some people were like that.

His hand drifted down and felt for his scouter, he couldn't help feeling a little relief when he found it. The sudden fear that he had left it back at the palace had entered his mind. "Yeah, when it's necessary. It's not always fun seeing everything tinted pinkish." She smiled. "Especially you, always wearing your hair covering one of your eyes. All you see is pink, that hairstyle probably doesn't help in fights."

Krystal instinctively lifted one hand to touch the bang that covered her left eye. "It's never affected me before."

The prince just shrugged his shoulders, "Who knows, it might improve your abilities by a lot if you actually fought with _both_ eyes."

"Maybe."

Another silence ensued, as Krystal contemplated what to say next. She realized she was a little self conscious about her hair now, it was a little silly to wear the hair blocking one of her sources of vision. She had never thought about it that way before though, she had always been the best and never seen a need for improvement. "Is it because you like how it looks?"

The prince broke the silence this time. Krystal was interrupted from her reverie about whether she could change her style before they started the mission by this question, and the question itself took her off guard. "I guess so, maybe. It's been like this for as long as I can remember."

"Not very smart."

The statement didn't actually bother her like it would have on any other day. It seemed he was saying this for her own benefit. He wasn't saying it to make fun of her or prove he was smarter, he was a little blunt about it, but he was looking out for her personal interests, and she liked that. "No." She laughed a little bit. "It's really not. Do you think it looks good?"

"Huh?" He stared at her and she actually passed him after a moment because he had stopped moving after she asked the question. She became immediately embarrassed as she realized the words that had come out of her mouth. It normally wouldn't have been so weird, but this was the prince. "It's ok…"

Vegeta shook off the shock, caught up to her, and began leading again. It was odd for a saiyan women to just openly ask that kind of question, but he had never been asked something like that before, ever. "Sorry."

"Why?"

"Guess that was random." He smiled and nodded a little bit at her, then shook his head.

"You don't have to be sorry, though."

Krystal twirled her hair a little bit, still thinking about whether she should make a real attempt to change the style before they left. It would hold Vegeta and Calis up and they wouldn't like that. Plus, it would have the added effect that they might think she would do that every time when she had never given a second thought to her hair before. Horrible timing. "I know, but still. This Sector is a lot more peaceful than Sector 7."

"So I've heard…"

Krystal thought for a moment, "We moved to get away from all that. Weird, saiyans moving to get away from violence."

The prince remembered what his mother had said about him enjoying fights a little more than the average saiyan, then he remembered what had followed and cringed a little bit internally, "It's not so weird, that's violence without honor… sneaky, and trying to kill without actually fighting."

She was happy that he understood. It was odd that when they finally arrived at the docking station she found herself a little less than happy. She had actually enjoyed their conversation for the most part, other than the fact she had completely embarrassed herself. "Calis isn't here yet? I'll be right back." She took off in the direction of the changing room.

Vegeta sat in impatient silence for a few moment as he waited on either Krystal to return or Calis to arrive, neither happened as fast as he would have liked. He finally noticed Calis and waved him over. Calis had definitely bought some new armor for the assignment, his father loved to splurge whenever there was an opportunity. Calis's armor was full. The under-armor was a deep crimson red, and the cuirass was a gold color, as were the shoulder pads, outlined in blue, his boots and gloves were white, traditional for higher-class saiyans, which Calis and his family were. "You look good."

Calis smirked at the remark; Vegeta was sure there was no need for him to inform him of that. The prince realized he probably should have gone armor shopping, or not even shopping, the palace was full of better, unused armor. His armor had been his battle armor for almost two years now, it wasn't too out of date because he usually wore his training armor. This under-armor was black, and the boots and gloves were silver, which matched the cuirass perfectly, aside from the white outline, which was a sharp contrast to his under-armor. His cuirass was simpler than Calis's; it had no neck and no shoulders. "Where's the girl?"

"Bathroom? I don't know. She wandered off a few minutes ago." Calis slapped a hand to his forehead and then shook his head. Vegeta looked around the area to see a few odd lower class saiyans leaving on random missions and if he squinted, he could see some of the nobility. Although, it was rare for the high-class adult saiyans to actually go out and do any work.

Calis was too busy sulking to look around at his surroundings, "See? I knew this would happen if a girl was in our squad. Man. This sucks. What is she doing? Putting on makeup?"

Vegeta smiled and shook his head, "You weren't exactly on time, Calis."

His friend crossed his arms and looked away, seemingly insulted. "Yeah well she's a girl and she is in the _bathroom_, girly girls she's probably one of those snobs who's dad treats her like a—" The look on the prince's face made him cut off abruptly and he stared at him for a long time, waiting for an explanation that wasn't coming. He mouthed the words, "She behind me?"

Vegeta nodded. "Is that what you think?" Calis winced at the acid in her voice and took a step back with a crooked smile on his face. He was shaking his head fervently trying to find some way to get out of it.

"No…I was just…"

Krystal gritted her teeth together and thought for a moment about pouncing on him and removing him from her squad permanently, then her decision-making skills kicked in and she decided that idea would be bad. "You don't even know my father, and you don't know me, so stop acting like such a prick."

"Can you guys try to get along? We're going to have to work together, you know."

Krystal looked in the direction of the prince, trying to decipher whose side he was really taking. Her experience with neutrality was that it did not really exist, "Well, if every time I walked up he hadn't been saying something ignorant about me, this would be a lot easier."

Calis eye twitched but he offered no rebuttal, lowering his head in surrender. Vegeta smiled halfheartedly and gestured towards the pods. "Your armor looks nice!" Calis's voice rang out and Vegeta had to stifle a laugh.

Krystal was wearing pink under-armor with a white cuirass, boots and gloves and some yellow plate in the middle of the cuirass and the toe of her boots were the same way. "Did you seriously?" It was clear she was torn between laughing or walking away, she chose the latter.

Vegeta dropped back enough to place a hand on Calis's shoulder. "Just let it go."

"Fine."

Vegeta took this moment to notice Krystal's hair. It was braided back tightly to her head, there were a few scattered bangs in her face but none of them came close to either of her eyes. He laughed quietly, but she still heard him. "What are you laughing at?"

The prince shook his head innocently, then raised as eyebrow pointing towards her hair. "I'm flattered, really."

Krystal's cheeks immediately changed from their normal color to a distinct crimson red. "I…I just thought you had a point. Not like I think you're brilliant or anything, no reason to be flattered by any means." Vegeta heard the frantic tone of her voice and couldn't help but laugh again.

"Knock it off. I just…oh, would you quit laughing."

Calis looked back and forth between them, "what?"

* * *

Krystal knew the pods were small, but she had no idea they were going to be so ridiculously cramped. She was little and she could barely move her legs, she shuffled about noisily trying to get in a comfortable position for the cryo-sleep that every journey involved. She didn't want to wake up with the numbest arm in history. In her moving her arm smacked a few buttons, she yelped in frustration. "WHAT WAS THAT?"

She immediately recognized her idiot squad member's voice, "I turned on the communications, moron." There was a pause on the other end; no doubt, Calis was trying to figure out how to turn _off _the communications.

"Why so you could scream at me? Like, literally scream at me?" Calis had obviously failed in finding a way to turn it off.

Another voice interrupted what Krystal was sure would have been an epic retort. "Turn it off, Krystal. I do not think you want Calis in your ear the whole time you're sleeping. It could brain wash you, you know."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Calis honestly did sound a little more confused than angry.

Krystal agreed with the prince indefinitely and clicked the button that she had accidentally clicked previously before Vegeta got a chance to explain himself to his friend. She smirked at Calis tossing and turning over Vegeta's meaning the entire trip down there. After a little more shuffling and turning and mentally complaining about how cramped the space was, she got comfortable and activated the cryo-sleep.

* * *

Vegeta stepped out uneasily from his spacecraft. His body felt like it belonged in a ball like fashion. He stumbled a little bit, before realizing he had left his scouter in the pod. He quickly reached back in and placed it on his face, clicking the power button. No ridiculously strong power levels, nothing out of ordinary at all. Other than the fact that all the power levels seemed strangely even and there weren't enough. He went over these two things in his head and took his scouter off, checking the range, it was set to the normal level. His intuition kicked in and he began to feel that this planet was not going to be nearly as easy to conquer as they had previously thought. "I can't feel my LEGS!" The prince turned to see his friend stumbled out of his pod and fall to the ground.

Vegeta looked down at him a little pitifully, "Yeah, it feels weird, I'm sure we'll adjust." Calis blinked and stared up into Vegeta's eyes before shaking his head passionately and crossing his arms.

"Wrong."

The prince glared skeptically at his fallen comrade, but chose not to answer his clearly biased remark, "Get up. Something weird is going on around this planet, put on your scouter." Calis immediately sat up, getting a serious look on his face.

"What do you mean?'

Krystal finally stepped out, she looked groggy, but she wasn't complaining about the stiffness of her legs. She already had her scouter in place and it was clearly analyzing the surroundings. Vegeta was curious what she would have to say, there were times when he felt he was just being paranoid. He probably got that from his father. "Aren't many people around." Vegeta sensed a note of suspicion the female saiyan's voice.

Calis had sat up, but not stood up just yet and was adjusting his own scouter on his face and activating it. He seemed a little wary of what they were saying. "It's like the scouter is just picking up one person over and over…"

Vegeta nodded his head, "I don't know, but I thought I read somewhere that that's a sign of a decoy… to throw you off. They take one person's power level and alternate it very slightly and project it on to their surroundings."

Krystal was impressed that he had remembered that much from class, she thought she was the only one who even bothered to pay attention at all. "If that is the case, it might not be as bad as you think, because it would have to be a small shield they were projecting."

"Right." Vegeta and Calis both agreed with her, she noted that this might have been the first time Calis had done so.

Vegeta attempted to expand the range on his scouter once more, but if he had expanded it, it wasn't detecting anymore life than it had been before. "I suppose we should head in the direction of the energy." He paused mid thought, so neither of the other two interrupted him. "It might be a trap." He didn't understand why this thought had occurred to him, but it was intuition.

"I doubt it." Calis took the prince seriously for a moment and then seemed to dismiss the idea, "That would mean they sat around waiting on someone to invade, no way they knew we were coming."

Krystal bounced back and forth between the two thoughts, Calis idea made sense, but anything could change that. This race may have abilities that were uncharted by the data the saiyans had. "I don't know."

"Even if it is, though, we can't just sit here…we have to approach it, so we might as well take the risk." The prince contradicted his own thought with this and thus made it much easier for Krystal to pick a side.

She nodded, and the three of them flew in that general direction. Krystal winced at the sheer speed of the royal member of her team; he was ridiculously fast. She glanced to see if Calis was struggling to keep up, if he was, he wasn't showing it, but he must have been used to this by now. "I don't see anything." Calis was looking at Vegeta, obviously expecting to have seen something by now.

Krystal agreed with him after a few moments. The power levels were too close for them not to have seen any sign of civilization yet. "Do you see that?" She glanced at Vegeta and then squinted into the distance to make anything out.

Calis did the same. Her frustration grew after a few moments she saw nothing, but suddenly her eyes adjusted to the distance and she made out a few small buildings. "Oh. That really is small."

"It looks deserted." Calis had found it as well.

After a small debate they decided it would be best to go ahead and check it out. They landed in what would have been the middle of the town. As it was, it appeared they had landed in the middle of ruins. "I don't understand." Calis walked towards a building and looked around. The buildings were grey, basic civilization. He couldn't tell much about their technology because everything was destroyed.

Vegeta watched Calis and Krystal explore around a bit and he kept his eyes peeled, searching for anything to give him a clue of what was going on. Suddenly, the air pulsed. It seemed reality shifted and his head reacted in an outburst of agony. A cry emitted from his lips and he grabbed his head as his knees almost completely buckled, leaving him kneeling on the ground. His friend sprinted towards him and knelt beside him. "Vegeta?"

Krystal turned and watched the two; Calis seemed concerned. She looked around for anything that could have hit the prince. "What… was that?" Krystal raised her eyebrows and made her way over to them now.

"What was what?"

The prince looked up at her and gritted his teeth together, "You didn't _feel_ that? It felt like reality just lifted for a moment."

Krystal blinked, her eyes wide. "No… are you sure you're ok?"

"No, didn't I tell you, I'm clinical! It must just be fit of epilepsy!" His sarcasm was drown out by the sheer anger echoing in his voice. It didn't particularly frighten her, she had never seen him react so negatively towards her before, but she just blinked. She opened her mouth to respond, or calm him down, but he grasped his head again and cried out again.

"What is it?!" Calis was getting frantic. His head jerked around searching for anything that could give him a clue as to what was going on.

Vegeta blinked and it was almost like the only real things in the area were Calis, himself and Krystal. He realized what it was two seconds too late, a wave of exhaustion hit him just before an electrical current ran rampant through his veins, causing a livid wave of agony. The prince screamed one time before the pain washing over him became too much and he collapsed into darkness.

Krystal gasped and found herself suddenly extremely concerned, "Vegeta!" The air surged and the desert ruins seemed to shimmer and were replaced with something else. Metal. "It's… an…" The electric current suddenly took hold of her body.

* * *

Calis awoke in what appeared to be a dark room. The entire room was blurry and the first thing he noticed was that he couldn't move his limbs. His arms were tied above him, and he was hanging from the ceiling with his ankles bound together. The blurriness began to fade and he realized he was in what looked like an interrogation room. "Where…?"

"Hey the bigger one is waking up." He recognized the language, but he did not recognize the voice. His eyes searched for the speaker, and they found him. He was a large man, in a black suit.

Another man entered the room and he was wearing what was probably a general's outfit. "Welcome back." The voice sounded cruel. The voice sounded like something he needed to get away from, immediately.

He shook his head and with it successfully removed any remaining grogginess clouding his thoughts, "Who are you!?"

"I don't think you're in the position to be asking questions." Calis looked around the room and grinded his teeth together.

The old man smirked, he had ice blue eyes that to Calis were very unsettling, "But because I'm such a nice guy, I'll answer you. I'm Giyar, Kioyan, and this is the planet of Dantoucant. But, you already know that, because you were sent here by some of the inhabitants."

Calis winced, putting it all together now. It was apparent the Kioyans had found out that the Ukoiyans and put in a request to the saiyans for help. He wanted to scream, he wondered how they had found out. He was also extremely curious has to how when they first arrived they had seen something completely different from what they were seeing now. Calis felt a sharp pain in his right cheek as his neck was jerked toward the left. "Look at me."

Calis's eyes were wearied, he found himself wondering for the first time were Vegeta and Krystal were, they were not in this room. His heard wrenched at the thought of Vegeta being dead. Vegeta was the one who had picked up on the illusion first. He was the stronger one, what was keeping them from killing him? "…I don't…understand." He decided not to bring them up, on the off chance they hadn't gotten captured.

"Of course not. Your turn to answer some questions, answer peacefully and there will be no pain involved in the process. Who are you?"

Calis took a deep breath but decided the best course of action at the moment was to cooperate as long as they didn't ask any of the wrong questions, "Calis Onasi."

Giyar smiled, his eyes seem to contain some relief in them. "Saiyan?"

Calis nodded his head meekly. He realized his arms were very tired from being bound above him and supporting his weight. He glanced up at his wrists and winced. "Why were you sent here?"

For a moment, Calis thought. He was going to refuse to answer, then he decided things would be a little smoother if he answered, just not to the best of his abilities, "We got a request to get rid of you guys from the Ukoiyans."

Giyar nodded, apparently no one else had explained further, he was off the hook on that one. He figured if this man knew he knew about the generators being their objective he would know too much. "Fine, and who are your friends?"

'_Damn!' _Calis sighed. Their names couldn't hurt anyone, he didn't think. He reconsidered that after a moment and bit his lip. He did not want to give either of their names. Vegeta's name in particular could be incriminating. His nonresponsiveness got him a slap in the face again. "I don't know! We get sent with anonymous people and are forbidden to exchange names, it's for situations like this one." That was far less likely to get by than the other.

This time it was a punch to the jaw. "Imbecile. I heard you saying the other boy's name. Vegeta, was it?" Calis winced.

"No." Another hit.

Giyar gritted his teeth together, his nice masquerade becoming a memory fast. "Why bother lying when I already know the answer, you idiot?"

Calis glared off into space, feeling his heart pound in reaction to having to answer questions about his friend.

* * *

A spasm ran through Vegeta's body for the second time in seemed like a second. He opened his eyes and the blurriness only remained for a moment this time, he was lying stomach down in a warm liquid. His wrists were bound tightly behind him and his feet were tied together, keeping him from doing anything at all, really. "He talking anymore?"

"Not a word. Few screams, though."

A smirk crawled across the man's face as he walked towards the prince; Vegeta glanced up in frustration, his right eye twitching, his left too swollen to do much of anything. "It doesn't matter anymore, I know who he is."

Vegeta inhaled sharply as the man's steel boot slammed into his side, "How? The other two?"

"No. It was easy, actually, it's always easy to find information on a crown prince." Vegeta winced.


	3. Curse

Disclaimer: Still no.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Curse  
**

A tall man stood against a corner, his hair was jet black and his eyes were blacker, if that was possible. The old man walked towards him, "What do you know about this saiyan race?" The younger man look sideways at him. He didn't say anything for a moment.

"I'm the one that tipped you off, without me, you would be dead as they get right now." Giyar grinded his teeth together, but had no argument. The younger man stood up straight and smiled evilly. "But they are a very simple race, what are you wanting to know?"

Giyar seemed pleasantly surprised that this stranger was still going to answer his question after he had just flaunted the debt owed to him in Giyar's face. "About the prince, what exactly would they do to get him back?"

The man turned to him, a strange glint shining in his eyes, "Before I answer this question, do you actually intend on giving him back alive?"

"No."

The man opposite Giyar let a cruel smirk slide across his face as he heard this word, he didn't speak for a minute, seemed to be reveling in something, "Anything." His eyes turned sharply towards the prince who was writhing in agony under what could have been a cane. It was metal, and at the end it split into five different lengths that looked like legs, except the ends were, jagged and sharply pointed. The five ends were pressed harshly into the kid's abdomen and the electricity bounced in and out of his body like a snake weaving in and out of the ground. "Just make sure he dies after you've promised them whatever you intend to promise."

Giyar nodded his head, that was one request he was happy to oblige with.

* * *

Calis stared at the metal bars, thinking very fondly of slamming his head into them until he was forced into unconsciousness. Most of the pain from before had subsided and he was just feeling particularly helpless. He had not seen Vegeta or Krystal since he'd gotten here and he was beginning to worry they were dead, without his scouter he had no way of knowing one way or the other. He had a feeling he would know if Vegeta were dead, though. He would just know. Calis was beginning to think he was only telling himself that to insure he didn't go completely insane. His eyes followed a guard into the room, "I swear if you don't let me out of here, RIGHT NOW." The guard regarded him with a certain sense of pity. He growled at that.

The guard's eye turned towards the door and another guard entered with a female. It took Calis a moment, but then it dawned on him, "Krystal!" She didn't look too badly injured, a few minor scrapes and bruises, but nothing that seemed to be keeping her from shouting a line of curses at said guard. When the guard opened the gate Calis jumped at him, attempting to get out, but he pulled out another one of those sticks with the two prongs and shocked the life out of him. He stumbled backward and fell against the wall. Calis hissed in frustration at himself and then looked towards Krystal, "Are you alright?"

Krystal panted for a moment then looked over at him, nodding wearily but looking around at their surroundings, "Yes, but I don't know that we are going to stay that way for long in this place. I can't believe we didn't see through the illusion."

"Was it sorcery or what?"

"I've been asking myself the same question and haven't come up with any answers, Vegeta saw through whatever it was, if only in bursts."

Calis nodded, but then another surge of worry ran through him, "Where is he? Have you seen him?" Krystal looked at Calis seeming a little mutually disappointed as she shook her head.

"I was really hoping you had."

Calis heard this comment and couldn't help but smile, "You were worried, that's sweet." Krystal jerked back a bit and her eyes opened wider.

She closed one eye and regained her composure as she answered, wiping away some blood that had begun to trickle down towards her left eye from a cut on her upper forehead, "Well, obviously, he was with us, I don't want him to die."

Calis nodded comprehendingly and she was glad he accepted that answer. Calis's voice lowered when he responded this time, "We have to get out of here."

"Duh." She glanced around for a moment, everything around her looked completely impenetrable, she knew she was resourceful but she didn't have many resources here, "What about Vegeta? Should we… wait?"

Calis shook his head fervently, "If he's not here by the time we get out of here now, he's not going to be here." She could hear the audible shake in the boy saiyan's voice. It was clear there was a very genuine worry for his friend in there somewhere. It was the first time she actually felt a respect for this member of her squad.

Krystal knew waiting on that would be a lost cause, chances were, they knew who Vegeta was, anyone who had the ability to intercept a message like they had and create such a well orchestrated illusion, should have no problem Her heart fluttered at these people knowing that he was the prince. Her mind refused to think about what exactly they would do to him. "I suppose you're right, but I've got nothing, any ideas?"

Calis looked down, thinking unpleasantly hard as he scanned the room for anything that could be of use to them, "Not yet, but I will… I have to."

* * *

Vegeta panted unsteadily, he was in the room by himself now. He didn't think he was bound anymore, but his body seemed unable to get upright. He grit his teeth and attempted to push himself off the floor, the effort issuing a grunt from his mouth, before he collapsed once more into a series of broken pants. Amidst his anger he heard more footsteps, before it had disturbed him knowing he was about to get tortured, he believed was the word, but at the moment he felt nothing whatsoever towards the footsteps, only a distinct anger towards his inability to rise. He continued to attempt to get up, but all in vain, and then the footsteps were on him. He moved his eyes towards the sound to see a younger man walking toward him. The prince watched motionlessly as the man straddled his body with his feet and knelt so that Vegeta could clearly see his face. For a lingering moment, Vegeta thought he recognized the man. The man grabbed the front of Vegeta's shirt and pulled the boy inches from his own face, "Are you wondering why you were unable to move despite having no restraints?"

Vegeta just kept his teeth gritted, he stared off into another direction. A jerk on his body and a cold hand on his chin turned him back towards the man, their eyes finally met, much to the prince's dismay. They seemed so familiar, but he had no idea why. "You do, I could tell the moment I walked in." He noticed the voice was course, much courser than a man of this age should have. Suddenly, the man's edgy nature vanished and a smile erupted across his face. A sharp pain exploded in Vegeta's chest, from a knee or elbow, or something, he sucked in and choked on his own blood, forcing it out of his mouth. The man bent his head so it was right next to Vegeta's ear. Vegeta winced, not knowing what to expect. "Black magic." The whispered phrase was all he needed to jog his memory.

"Rasput-!" Rasputin slammed his free hand over Vegeta's mouth hard. Vegeta winced against the impact, but he was immediately scowling at the man.

"You recognize me now, I'm flattered. I heard about Farinata's death, that's just terrible." Vegeta's eyes widen at the mention of his uncle's name, he attempted to maneuver is jaw into the position to bit the sorcerer's hand, but Rasputin jerked it back and hit the prince across the cheek. Before Vegeta could recover, the hand was on his mouth again, and now the grip stung against the new bruise.

"However, it's only the beginning. Frieza was the perfect tool, really, there was no one better for the job. Sadistic, cruel, a complete idiot. What more could you want in your bishop?" He smiled down at the boy who was still visibly struggled against the magic and Rasputin's hand. "I like to think of it as a game of chess, and in a game of chess with no player, the king would be the one in charge, and that's where I come in." Vegeta twitched furiously freeing himself from the magic for a moment, jerking up towards Rasputin in anger and getting a foot in the rib cage and somehow winding up right back where he started, now with a broken rib.

"What… are you talking about… Frieza is…"

"How do you think Frieza managed to conquer all you brutish saiyans anyway?" Vegeta's eyed widened in realization.

"You-..."

"I promised your father a curse, I promised to kill everyone in his family, and guess who's next?" He pulled Vegeta's chin up, and stroked his bruised cheek with his thumb. He felt a tremor throughout the prince's body and smirked at the reaction. "They'll all be with you soon, though, child. I just had to do you first because yours is the one death that will shatter every single one of them, unfortunately, Farinata died too soon to see it." Vegeta growled furiously in response. Rasputin continued to talk, but Vegeta's hearing drifted in and out as a sting ignited in his body. It wasn't necessarily painful, it was like something boiling inside of him, as if his own blood was heating up. The vision of his right eye blurred. Rasputin's face is what gave away the fact that he had stopped talking. The thoughts of his dead uncle screamed through his mind like fire, he saw his mother and father dead. Everyone. Everyone he cared about would die.

"No… no dammit." He couldn't be here, he couldn't let this happen. He wasn't going to die here, he was going to stop Frieza. He had to. Suddenly the vision in his right eye vanished completely, but his anger was too much for him to notice or care. He did notice, however, when the vision abruptly returned to him. Except it wasn't his normal vision. The world was blurred, tinted red and dimmed, Rasputin was a black outline in sharp contrast to his surroundings. He didn't understand it, but he looked down and saw black restraints on his arms and legs that hadn't been there before. He jerked his left wrist free from its restraint and grabbed Rasputin. "I won't let you do that!"

Rasputin stared at the prince's hand, but his mind remained on the symbol that was now present in the iris of his right eye. Vegeta slung him across the room and he slammed into the wall painfully. Vegeta broke the remaining restraints, his voice cracked as he spoke, "I won't let you do this!"

Rasputin smiled evilly, despite a slight fear of the saiyan prince that had blossomed in the pit of his stomach, "Dear child, it's already begun."

* * *

Calis was slamming his shoulder into the cold bars of the prison, it was not the most intelligent idea he had ever had, but he had simply refused to admit there was no escape. A blue light lit up the hall outside the prison and Calis's eyes widened. The prince entered the room, he looked hurt, but looking at his posture it seemed unlikely. Calis looked at his injured but eventually his eyes found the prince's, and he immediately knew something was off. There was a symbol in the iris of Vegeta's right eye, but his other eye looked completely normal, however his already high energy level was even higher because his energy was flowing off of him in waves, despite no powering up occurrence. "Vegeta, are you… ok?"

"I'm fine, Calis, I know my eye looks weird, but," he yanked the door to the cell open and Calis and Krystal stood frozen for a moment, in awe of the boy's power, "we need to go."

They followed to prince out of the prison area, Calis felt like the alarm might bust his ear drums, it was amazing that there was no one coming up to them. He looked the prince up and down and was fairly sure he knew what had happened to them. "Can you see?"

"Yes… well, kinda." He seemed perfectly normal, just abnormally strong. No, being abnormally strong was normal for the prince, but this was not. The sheer presence of his power was enough to cause Calis some discomfort and he trusted the prince fully. His only concern was that the power he had found was going to consume him completely.

Krystal seemed just about as worried about it as he was, "What happened, you look injured, what did they do to you? " Vegeta's eyes fell to the ground as she said this, so badly wanting to tell her they had done this to him and it wasn't his fault.

"Not this." His voice was so quiet, the other two saiyans struggled to hear it over the sound of the alarm. He glared up at both of them as neither one of them spoke, he wasn't sure either of them had heard and he wasn't going to repeat it. "Come on, we need to destroy the generators and get back, before the damn school fails us."

Calis and Krystal just nodded, detecting the command in his tone.

The task didn't take very long after that, it involved Vegeta killing some random people but they were at the power levels they were supposed to be. Calis mused the entire time about how they could have been tricked so easily, "An illusion, huh? They aren't that advanced now that I'm out of the damn prison, wonder how they pulled that off."

"I thought it might be the generators… but… " Vegeta's voice faded as he caught himself, something inside of him refused to speak of his encounter with Rasputin. He knew the man had watched him, seen his assignment, and meant for him to die here. Still, his words were ringing in Vegeta's ears.

"_It's already begun."_

Vegeta tried to wrap his mind around this, wondering if he was only saying that to scare him. Rasputin had been the most powerful mage on Vegeta, the mages had practically died out with his banishment. "But?"

He realized he had stopped mid-sentence and that was never acceptable when Calis was around, and now apparently not when Krystal was either, because they were both watching him curiously, he just shrugged, the mark in his eye had faded and they seemed to have calmed down. "Do either of you know how sorcerers work anyway? Know anything about magic?" Krystal blinked.

"You think it was some kind of magic? Mystics and stuff? I never much cared for that, it's really gone to the birds on Vegeta, too." Vegeta nodded his head, as Krystal confirmed his thought that Rasputin had been the only reason magic had existed for as long as it had on Vegeta.

"Dad told me magic corrupts people, black magic. It's what all of it roots back to." Calis seemed a little disturbed at the thought of it. He knew more about Rasputin that Vegeta did, probably. Vegeta hated to hear the stories but as a child, Calis had always been interested in it.

"Black magic, isn't that the stuff with curses and stuff?" Vegeta tried to sound casual but he felt a tremor rising in his voice, fighting to keep it down, he stopped himself before he asked anymore for fear of breaking down.

The girl rocked back on her heels, she remembered the few classes she had taken covering magic, another class she hadn't paid much attention in. She hated the classes that focused on death and corruption, as if there wasn't enough of that in the world without teaching about it. However, back when she had been convinced she was going to be the strongest fighter alive, she had considered it because of a few things she had heard. "In Sector 7, they used to tell us once a curse started it couldn't be stopped, so when mages knew they were going down, they could take someone else with them slowly and painfully."

Vegeta's eyes misted for a moment, his heart churned in his chest to think of that statement. Rasputin couldn't have done that, and nothing that could be made, couldn't be broken. "I don't believe that." Vegeta kept his voice more even this time, talking himself out of worrying over the sorcerer's words, cursing himself for having not killed him.

"Why do you ask anyway?" Krystal eyed him curiously and Vegeta mentally slapped himself for not preparing an answer to this question sooner, there a silence that Vegeta found very necessary to end very soon.

His mind raked through the excuses he had heard people use, and of course, nothing was of any use to him at all, so he told the truth, "There was a sorcerer in there, he created the illusion, I overheard him talking about curses and was curious."

He was a terrible liar, but apparently, he was not too bad about shortening the truth because Calis and Krystal seemed to accept that response without a hitch. Apparently, his silence had been as prolonged as he felt it had. "You're hurt. Don't you think you should rest?" Vegeta looked down at his body and suddenly he realized how much pain he had been in. His mind had been so preoccupied with other events it had completely blocked out

Vegeta realized he was embarrassed by his friend's concern and looked away, dismissing his injuries, "Don't worry about me. I'm sure I didn't get it any worse than you guys did."

"No." Calis inhaled deeply and stared at the prince gravely, "I'm sure we didn't. I can tell from looking at you, you weren't before because you had that explosion of power, but now you're limping and I've seen your legs shaking. You can hardly stand."

Vegeta twitched and his teeth clicked together as his eyes widened in surprise, "I… why were you watching me so closely anyway?" He resisted the urge to just concede to Calis and admit he was in pain, his body and Calis had just noticed it before he had. He didn't want to be babied, though, and his pride was angered at the thought of him admitting to being injured on their first mission. Though, he had to admit, it had added some fun to the equation.

"Firstly, you're my friend, secondly, you're the prince, I have a certain duty to protect you. It's a vocation."

Krystal found herself smiling at that comment, and sensing some type of underlying truth behind it, "He's right, you know, you do look hurt, I've noticed it too."

Vegeta stared back and forth from one to the other, "I cannot believe you two are ganging up on me, you hate each other!" He grinded his teeth together and spun around on his heels, in his mind he figured they had destroyed the last generator so now he had to get back to the ships, he activated his scouter to find their location and as soon as it locked on, "We should get back."

"Don't be so stubborn." Vegeta glared back at Krystal.

"Fine, I'll concede, Vegeta, just because if you're going to be healed properly we need saiyan technology, I have a feeling the Ukoiyans aren't going to have the best technology for awhile yet, and I think you destroyed most of the Kioyans' things."

Vegeta looked around for a moment, then turned back to the both of them, in a slightly better mood, knowing the attention was about to shift away from him, "I did. I find it funny that I could barely distinguish the Ukoiyans from the Kioyans."

"I find that sad. How can they have a war, when they are the exact same? It makes no sense, I'm not even sure what the dividing line was."

Calis thought for a moment, and then seemed to realize he had no idea either, Vegeta decided he'd contribute to the idea again, though, "People can have a war over anything, it never changes, I think any sentient race has to fight, saiyans of course, are worse, but any of them have to fight. To live peacefully all the time, is sort of like not understanding what happiness, how can you know you're happy if you've never been sad?"

"Nice." Calis smiled at his friend, "Who knew anyone listened when Doctor Zorn talked." Vegeta grinned at this comment.

"You had to be halfway paying attention to know he had said it."

Calis shook his head fervently, "Nope, it was on a test that I failed."

* * *

The docking station was more crowded than when they had left. Krystal had to let go of the frustration that her legs were so stiff just to maneuver around all the bodies, and none of them smelled particularly good, either. "We were slow; we're going to be lucky if they accept it as complete."

Calis was trying to help Vegeta, who was absolutely refusing any part of it, "You're ridiculous." Vegeta pushed his friend back with his arm, and Calis just followed him out of the station. The two stood outside where it was quieter, and they could talk in peace. "We should go to the med clinic."

"I can't." Calis blinked, for a moment he looked angry, but Vegeta did appear to know he needed to get to the clinic. "It's been three days, and from the looks of it, it's getting close to dark. There's a royal banquet; I don't have time to heal."

"You can't go to a banquet looking like that." Vegeta sucked in a deep breath; he knew what he must look like. His training exercises were always rigorous but he had not been this injured before. It was actually painful to breathe.

Krystal stepped out of the station a few minutes after them, she looked a little perturbed about something that had obviously just occurred, but she said nothing, "I'll tell your father, you two go to the clinic."

The prince raised an eyebrow at the girl, "My father doesn't know who you are, what makes you think they'll even let you in the palace?" He stopped and rolled his eyes; hearing his mother's reprimanding voice in the back of his head, "Thank you… though."

A smirk came across Krystal's facial features and she suddenly looked extremely smug, Calis eyed her wearily, "If you intend to kill any of the guards, I would advise strongly against it!"

Her smirk faded and she looked slightly offended, "Do you honestly think that I am so much of an idiot? Right, I can totally take palace guards in a fight." She looked at the injured prince now, part of her was searching for any sign of the symbol that she knew rested just under the blue of his iris, the other part felt a stinging in her chest about how the wounds. Oddly enough, she felt partially responsible and hated herself for it. "I have my ways to get in, I'm your squad member, you've gotta learn to trust me."

Vegeta glanced in Calis's direction, for once, hoping his stubborn disposition would help out given the situation. The boy thought for a moment and then nodded his head, "Fine, it's worth a shot."

The young prince gritted his teeth together momentarily, thankful for the concern but still hating the spotlight that seemed to be shining on him. "Fine, let's hurry up. Incase you don't get in, maybe I'll make it back in time." Krystal waved her hand skeptically at him, apparently, there was no thought in her mind that she wouldn't be able to talk with his father. Vegeta watched her for a moment and felt a bit of skepticism himself, he hated to send her to deal with his emotionless father. King Vegeta might tell her he didn't have a son or something.

Calis grabbed Vegeta by the arm and dragged him in the direction of the clinic, and Krystal headed in the opposite direction, "I don't see what you're problem with getting healed is anyway." Vegeta's teeth clicked together and he stared up at the sky, trying to find a way to word what he needed to say. For a moment, nothing came to him and he said nothing.

"It's not getting healed, healing is part of the fighting process, it's all the attention. It annoys me." He shook his head and watched the ground as he walked, he noticed droplets of blood would randomly hit the ground beneath him; he winced. "I just would prefer to blend in."

Calis's laugh caused him to look up abruptly forgetting about the blood on the grass blades behind him, "You're the prince, and on top of that, you're phenomenally strong. You aren't ever going to blend in." This comment caused Vegeta to look down again. Sadness entered into him and he wanted to rip his own heart out. He had no problem with being strong. It would be uncharacteristic of a saiyan to not want to be the strongest. Calis stopped when he saw the look in his friend's eyes. "Vegeta, it's ok to be strong."

Guilt tore through him like a knife. His insides felt as if they had been wound into a tight knot that he would never get out. A knot that had always been there but was making now a time when he sensed its presence. "Yeah, I guess not."

Calis watched Vegeta closely for a moment, he saw an odd sense of pain in the prince's movements, as if it hurt him to move, as if it hurt to be standing there at all. "Vegeta?"

Farinata's face flashed across his mind and his heart throbbed at the thought. He remembered going to see him in his cell, the last time he had ever seen his uncle at all. And after what Rasputin had told him on Kouscant. It seemed his suspicions were correct. His body wrenched, he wasn't sure if it was the physical pain or not. His mind retreated back to when Nitar has tried to kill him. Nitar…

"_You honestly think you can beat me?" The boy had a swagger when he walked, the type of swagger that made everyone around him want to hit him across the face and see him squirm on the ground. The prince didn't seem affected by it, though. "How old are you anyway?"_

_Vegeta held up three fingers, he grinned at Nitar. This seemed to simply annoy the older boy and he stomped forward. "Why are you so mad all the time?" Nitar blinked and stood there staring down at the prince for a long time. His eyes smoldered and it was apparent to everyone present that he intended to fight a three year old. _

_His friend tried to stop him before he could make himself look like a complete jerk, "Hey, Nitar, forget it, he's just a little kid, he doesn't know anything. Leave him alone."_

_Nitar had no intentions of leaving this kid alone, Vegeta, he remembered hearing his father say the name a thousand times. All he needed was for that prince to be dead and he could tear the entire royal family apart. He was going to make his father proud this time, he was not going to let him down again. "I'm sure he gets out of stuff that way a lot, I'm not leaving him alone."_

_Vegeta blinked, seeming a little bit surprised, "Are we going to fight?" He was confused, Nitar was probably right, he had gotten out of fights a thousand times by people judging that he was too young to mess with. However, his response was odd enough, he seemed hopeful when he said the word fight. _

"_Yeah, we're gonna fight."_

_Vegeta jumped up, so quickly in fact, that he barely retained his balance, "Really! Ok!"_

That fight was one fight Vegeta was never going to forget. He knew he was sparring, even as a three-year-old, but he sensed there was something else behind Nitar's intentions. Nitar never made any attempts to kill him, but when he started losing there was a rage about him that Vegeta didn't quite comprehend at the time, and looking back, he wasn't sure he did now.

_Nitar fell down, wincing as he landed on his bottom. He watched the saiyan prince furiously, he didn't know what to do. He had tried everything to win the match. Win the match and make it look like an accident. Those were his instructions, he had been a little worried about the accident part, but it had never occurred to him that Vegeta was going to win. His mind could not wrap around that a boy so young was so strong. "HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT? YOU'RE CHEATING!"_

_Vegeta blinked and stepped back, "Nuh-uh!" He seemed flustered at the fact that someone would even consider cheating in a fight. Nitar knew he wasn't cheating, he was a strong fighter for his age, but a boy of three who had no idea they were going to fight could never have devised a plan to cheat against him. The older boy growled, he couldn't see a single flaw in the way Vegeta fought. _

_It was infuriating. "I'll beat you." He charged towards Vegeta._

_Vegeta stepped to the side, he could see the youth in the way Vegeta moved, it was almost as if he lost his balance for a split second when he moved too fast, but the second was not enough for Nitar to take advantage of, just enough for Nitar to see that Vegeta really was only three. Vegeta raised his fist and hit Nitar in the jaw, hard. Nitar landed on the ground a few feet away, motionless. "Are you ok?"_

_The fact that Vegeta would have the gall to ask him that question made it all the worse. He knew he shouldn't do it if he'd won the match, he knew there would be dire consequences, but he wanted to kill him. He wanted to kill him for his father and for himself. "You're a little freak!"_

_Vegeta seemed confused. "That wasn't nice." His eyebrows furrowed as he came to understand that Nitar had just insulted him. It was not yet apparent to the little boy what losing did to some people. "I am not!" He hated being called a freak. _

"_Yes, you are." Nitar fingered the knife under his jumpsuit. He walked towards Vegeta, "But fine, you win." Vegeta was surprised, but pleasantly so and Nitar's sudden will to be nice to him. Even though it still stung to have been called a freak, he decided he would let it go since Nitar was being nice and he had been so hard to get along with in the past._

_The prince smiled halfheartedly, a little saddened still, but making the best of the situation, "You're good."_

_Nitar laughed, "Just go, before I decide I'm not ok with losing." Vegeta looked a little concern and didn't seem to fully comprehend the meaning of the statement. He decided that he better do what Nitar wanted this time, though, since he didn't want him to not be ok with anything. He nodded his head and turned, walking towards his house._

The prince winced at the memory of the next moment. The moment that no one else should have ever known about. His mind had played back the scene so many times, wondering if one thing had gone differently would Frieza not be here. That moment seemed to be the climax of everything, after it, everything had started in a downwards spiral.

_Vegeta felt something odd, he stopped where he was standing. His body stiffened and he pulled back, his body turning to the angle where the knife slid right past him. He stared at the knife, his mind reactively instinctively, he grabbed Nitar's wrist, so hard that it caused him to drop the knife. It fell to the ground below them and he slung Nitar across the field. "What… ?"_

"_Vegeta!" Vegeta turned at the sound of his father's voice. "There you are! I have the entire palace guard searching for you, what have I told you about-…" His father's eyes drifted downwards and Vegeta cocked his head to the side, then his own eyes gently glided towards the knife._

_The king took a few strides and knelt next to his son, picking the knife up. The knife was humming with energy, Vegeta already knew he was about to be questioned. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say either. "What is this?"_

"_I don't know."_

_The father looked at him more sternly now, "Yes, you do! Vegeta, what is this?"_

"_A..uhh…aaa weapon!" He said innocently. _

"_Who was using it?"_

_

* * *

  
_

"Vegeta! " Vegeta looked up at Calis who looked very concerned, he smiled and just shrugged his shoulders.

"Let's just go Calis."

"So you're the little girl my boy got paired up with?" Krystal nodded her head as she stared up at the king. He did look very similar to Vegeta, except scarier and with facial hair. And the eyes were very different, obviously.

She swallowed hard, she couldn't help but be a little intimidated in his presence, the room was huge and he filled up what felt like half of it while she wasn't sure she was officially in it. "Yes, my name is Krystal Hiyo, your Lordship. He wanted me to tell you him and Calis went to the medical clinic so they might be a little late for a banquet tonight."

"Thank you. That's fine." Krystal bowed her head slightly and turned to leave the room. "But before you go…" Krystal stopped and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She decided her initial thought of sprinting out of the room was a little ridiculous.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"Why did it take so long?"

She sighed a sigh of relief, she didn't know what she expected the question to be, but this one was easily answered, even if it did make her, Calis and Vegeta look a little less than competent. "Apparently, they knew we were coming, the Ukoiyans message got intercepted so they had an illusion set up, it completely took us off guard. We ended up getting captured." She spat the last word.

"Is Vegeta ok?"

She smiled, "He's fine, he's the one who got us out of there."

King Vegeta's pride swelled or a moment, admittedly he had been a little worried about his son, especially with the whole training shadow incident. He was afraid something had happened and the same person who had installed the program had assignment him to some planet that didn't actually exist. "Why didn't you go to the med?"

Krystal turned and faced him again, although her head was bent downwards, "I guess they went easier on me because I was a girl."

"Well, I'm glad you're all alright."

"Thank you, sire."

* * *

Vegeta sprinted towards the dining hall. His ceremonial armor had been spread across the palace, not even the gloves had been in the same place. His mother had been washing half of it, and he supposed she found the other half unfit to be washed so she strew it about the palace. He walked into the room, fortunately everyone was conversing so it wasn't one of those times when everyone stopped and stared at him. "Oh, Vegeta!" He turned at the sound of the familiar voice.

His aunt strolled across the room towards him, his mother's sister. She had flowing black hair and was the kind of woman men paid too much money to sleep with. "Aunt Ariya, hi."

She stroked his cheek and he winced, he hated this kind of treatment. He was aware that he was only eight, but for a saiyan eight was pretty mature and there was no reason to treat him like he was still an infant. He didn't say anything, though, because that would be disrespectful. He cursed his mother silently for instilling the 'respect your elders' policy inside of him. "You are certainly a handsome young man now, aren't you?"

His eye twitched again, "I suppose that's a matter of opinion."

He didn't honestly know whether she was older or younger than his mother, all he knew was that everyone thought she was the most beautiful lady on Planet Vegeta, the only woman who came close was his own mother. "And so modest!" She squealed over him for a couple more minutes and fortunately left before he lost his mind.

He walked a few more feet into the room now, he scanned the room for his mother and father and found them. He was going to go inform them that he was here but then he noticed who they were talking to and stopped. He walked towards a corner in the room and sat down on an empty bench. He stared at everyone in the room, a few of them were his age, but none of them had ever really been friends with him. Calis's family was just below the line to get into these types of things. "Well, well, if it isn't Daddy's little defect…finally decide to grace us with your presence, did you, princeling?"

Vegeta jerked upwards, simultaneously very annoyed and happy at the same time, a smirk came across his features as he stared up at the older boy. He was a lot taller than Vegeta and he looked much more like Faye than Vegeta did. His eyes were jet black and his hair was as messy as hair could get, his bangs hung more in his face than they should have and he had a black tattoo all down the left side of his face. It was in the shape of what could be considered a bolt of lightning, but it was black. It looked like a birthmark or something. "Nausikaa… you got dragged here?"

Nausikaa smiled, "I don't get dragged anywhere, kid." He sat down next to the prince and looked him over for a moment, "You've grown up a bit since I last saw you. Pretty soon you'll be as tall as my tail." Vegeta gritted his teeth and Nausikaa just flicked him in the forehead. "Wanna know why I came?"

Vegeta shrugged trying to pretend disinterest. However, when he found the reason out he was going to go hug it. Nausikaa was a jerk, but he was one of the few royal people Vegeta could converse with and not get annoyed. "Sure, sure."

Nausikaa pointed his finger to a spot in the room, Vegeta followed it and his eyes scanned numerous older people and finally he spotted a girl, older than him, but younger the Nausikaa probably. "Isn't she gorgeous?" Vegeta analyzed her more closely now, she was tall. Sadly, she might have been taller than Vegeta, Vegeta would pinpoint her age somewhere around eleven. Her legs were long, really long. Her hair reminded him of his aunt's, except it was red brown. Her eyes were a very strange green color, they seemed to have blue mixed in, but it was almost fluorescent. Vegeta deduced that she was pretty good looking. Of course, not agreeing probably would have gotten him punched.

"She looks nice. She's pretty."

"Pretty doesn't even begin to describe her."

Vegeta made a face, Nausikaa had liked girls before. He always acted like a complete sap over them too. He had gotten most of them and then become uninterested within the first week. He had to say, he thought he was a little more into this one than usual though, "Angelique…she dances."

Vegeta drew in a breath and Nausikaa rolled his eyes and clamped his hand over the prince's mouth. "DANCES?" The word was muffled but still understandable for Nausikaa. He removed his hand after the prince seemed to have accepted it and motioned for him to let him talk. "For money?"

"Yes, but before you freak out, she's nobility. She just does it because she loves to dance, and says its only fun when there's a risk involved." He glared at Vegeta, "You better not tell a soul, no one knows she does it. But we have something in common, we both do stuff like that, even though we're of noble descent."

Vegeta was on the border between disgusted and disturbed with Nausikaa's apparent belief that this girl was the one because they both ran off and did very stupid things. But, they weren't as justified as most because they were nobles. "Great, you're both idiots. Have you officially met her?"

"Well, duh."

Vegeta didn't say anything for a moment, the last girl he had been head over heels for he hadn't even met. Actually, that was one that Vegeta was pretty sure he never had met. "Then, why aren't you talking to her?"

"I'm getting to that part. Actually, I was looking for mom."

The prince leaned back against the wall the bench was against. He didn't speak for a moment, mainly because he didn't know where Faye was either. Faye was both of their mother's, but they did not have the same father. This put Vegeta in line first for the throne, because his father was the one of royal blood, but sometimes, he wished he could skirt the responsibility off on Nausikaa. "Just got here, she was talking to Frieza."

Nausikaa winced. There was one thing him and his half-brother did not differ on. "I heard you had your first assignment, how did that go?"

"Not good. They ended up knowing we were coming and we got captured. It took us a lot longer than it should have."

His brother smiled at him and shook his head, Vegeta didn't have to tell Nausikaa much because he knew enough about his little brother, "Yet you still had fun, and that happens to the best of us." Vegeta smirked at the thought of all the fighting. His mind shied away from one thing though. He hadn't killed hardly anyone, Calis had killed more people than he had and he was the one who got them out.

"I know. Sucked that it was on the first mission, though." Nausikaa agreed and then turned his attention back to his lady.

"Well, well, if it isn't my two favorite princes." Vegeta closed his eyes and shuddered under the sound of that voice. Nausikaa didn't move, but Vegeta felt him stiffen beside him. The younger prince had half a mind to stand up and blast a whole through him, the wall, and anyone else who got in the way.

Vegeta felt Nausikaa turned to look at Frieza, but Vegeta didn't look up still. He watched the ground with fervent interest wishing it would open up and swallow him. "Lord Frieza." Nausikaa stood and bowed. Vegeta felt Frieza's dead eyes on him.

"Hello, Prince Nausikaa." The eyes left him only for a moment and then returned, "I see your little brother is as ill-mannered as always."

His older brother shook his head, "He's shy." Nausikaa nudged Vegeta with his foot, but the younger prince refused to move. He had found a spot on the ground with his eyes and had no intention of leaving it.

Frieza's laugh cut into Vegeta like an ice covered knife, "I don't think that's it…" Vegeta felt Frieza walk towards him. He was still resisting the urge to run him through with any object he could get his hands on, and whether it was nailed down or not, honestly was not going to be a problem. His bottom lip trembled and he felt the cold pale hand on his chin as his face was jerked towards the tyrant. "Now, what is your problem with me, my child? I'm curious."

Vegeta said nothing. Frieza simply smiled and seemed to think about something that brought him intense pleasure, "You'll have to talk to me one day, prince." Vegeta's mind screamed in protest to that statement. He had spoken to Frieza before, but usually only when instructed to by his own father or mother. "But more importantly, you'll have to obey me."

Nausikaa winced at the word and watched his little brother, hoping that didn't cut too deeply. Vegeta's voice was hoarse when next he spoke, "I will _never_ obey you."

Frieza smiled at his defiance, "Ah, yours is just the type of spirit I love to break." Frieza turned and began to walk away, and as he did, his tail slammed into Vegeta's face and the younger boy twitched angrily, but said nothing.

"What a jackass." Vegeta silently agreed. It wasn't the first time Frieza had mentioned breaking him. When they had first met Frieza told his father that Vegeta was the kind of child that hadn't been disciplined properly and the only way to fix it now was to break him.

Vegeta spat a little bit and stood up, "Break me, yeah right." Nausikaa smiled sympathetically at the prince. He had never taken any of Frieza's threats seriously, he could never do anything to harm either of them. Namely Vegeta , because he was the crown prince and that would cause a revolt and Nausikaa had full confidence that the saiyans could and would eventually override Frieza.

"Forget it, Vegeta."

"I'm going to find mom and dad, they need to know I finally got here."

"I'll come with."

* * *

King Vegeta sat in his throne, thinking silently about events that had occurred over the last couple of days. He searched the crowd one more time for his son, "Father." His eyes never found the prince, but his ears did. He turned to the side to look at his only son.

"Sorry, I know I'm late." The king looked annoyed there was no denying that but he didn't say anything, and he wouldn't say anything here.

The king's eyes narrowed as he surveyed his son for a long time, he knew Nausikaa was behind him but that was of little interest to him. Prince Vegeta's blue eyes rested on his father. When Frieza was around, any kindness his father held before vanished and he knew he was about to be harshly reprimanded. The thought of saying anything about Rasputin banished itself from possibility once more. "You got captured, that's not the best thing to have happen on your first assignment."

"I'm aware of that."

"It's not going to make a good impression on anyone."

"I know, sir."

King Vegeta said no more and it was clear by the silence in the air that he didn't intend to, his son walked past him, understanding the conversation was over. Nasikaa jumped in front of his younger brother and smirked, "He can be a real jerk."

The prince simply nodded his head in return, "It's always like this when Frieza is around."

Nausikaa's eyes narrowed and he watched Vegeta cautiously for a moment before beginning his next sentence, "Stop making excuses for him." Vegeta's jaw tensed, but he said nothing, "You always defend him and he's turned into a real jerk." It looked like this was really hurting Vegeta but the prince was still not saying anything, "I'm not one to talk about great father's, since my dad left as soon as he found out mom was with child, but…"

"I know."

"Well, well, my two boys did make it to the banquet after all." Both of them turned to look at their mother, she was in a beautiful dress and they both could agree she looked absolutely stunning. Nausikaa noticed she was looking at Vegeta intensely, though.

She knelt in front of her son. She attempted to read his eyes for a moment, but smiled as she realized she couldn't. Vegeta was turning more and more into Farinata every day, getting too good at hiding his emotion for her liking, "Are you ok, Vegeta?"

He nodded his head once, smiling at her. Faye wrapped her arms around him, and let a few tears slide down her face. Vegeta's reaction to this was very typical, he pushed at her with his arms. "Mom! Come on! Don't be so mushy! Don't cry! ….Mom, that's so weird, don't cry!" Faye started laughing at Vegeta's frustration. He couldn't stand to see his mother cry, he couldn't stand to see anyone cry especially over him.

Nausikaa shook his head and laughed as well, regretting the decision because it turned Faye's attention toward him. "And you! Where have you been for the last three months? Not a word from you! I was worried sick about you!" Nausikaa looked down and blushed.

"Aw, mom, you know me…"

Faye stood and put her hands on her hips. Nausikaa looked away. "I'm beginning to wonder." She shook her head for a long moment and then simply smiled at both of them. "You two are really hard for a mother to try and keep up with, you know that?"

Nausikaa elbowed Vegeta in the ribs, "Ha, now you have to be a part of this too, it's all part of growing up."

Vegeta glared at his half brother for just a moment before turning back to his mother, "What is dad saying to Frieza anyway, he came over and started trying to start a conversation with me and Nausikaa." Faye stared down at the floor looking away from her son. Both of them hated the tyrant who was trying to take control of their very race. Vegeta showed it a little more, Nausikaa was really more susceptible to authority than Vegeta, which was surprising.

"Frieza tries to gain more power over your father every day, I don't hear half the conversations they have anymore, son."

Vegeta looked down, he was glad his mother didn't lie but it would be nice, just one time, to get some good news. Just to hear his father wasn't being completely pushed around by Frieza, but that was not going to happen today. "Right."


End file.
